The number of unemployed people in South Africa has skyrocketed from 584,000 to 7.8 million just as citrus exports in the Eastern Cape axis of the country need intense efforts to improve logistics.
The Eastern Cape is the biggest lemon producer, exporting more lemons than the US, Brazil, Egypt or Italy. South Africa itself is the world’s second largest exporter of citrus fruit, with around 65%, or 2.25m tons, of the crop of lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit and soft citrus destined for international markets.
Citrus exports have grown by more than 40% in the past decade to about R20 billion annually and this trajectory is set to continue — the Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA) forecasts an increase from the current 150m 15kg cartons per year to 200m in the next five years, and 255m by 2030.
The coming expansion in citrus production has the potential to create new jobs throughout the entire value chain. Forecasts range from 5,500 to 11,800 permanent jobs and 15,000 to 25,000 temporary or seasonal, and up to 58,000 upstream and downstream from the orchards.
Despite all this and in common with ports all around the world, South African ports are congested and under-equipped; freight costs are rising; there is a chronic lack of shipping containers to pack fruit into; and, despite major investments at Addo and in the ports, cold storage facilities are pressured for space.
The reasons are complex, and both local and global, and no one role-player can fix the situation. There is the global COVID-19 pandemic, weather affecting port operations, the effect of the July unrest and the cyber-attack on Transnet’s IT network.
Then there is the US’ stimulus of consumer demand to kick-start their economy, leading to huge demand for sea freight from east to west, and a lack of capacity on the routes we need to the Middle and Far East.
SA’s ports are congested and under-equipped; freight costs are rising; there is a chronic lack of shipping containers to pack fruit into; and, despite major investments at Addo and in the ports, cold storage facilities are pressured for space.
According to the latest Statistics SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the number of employed persons dropped by 54,000 in the second quarter of 2021, ending up at 14,9 million. The number of unemployed increased by 584,000 to 7,8 million compared to the first quarter of 2021.
This means the official unemployment rate has increased from 32,6% in the first quarter of 2021 to 34,4% in the second quarter of 2021; this is the highest since the start of the QLFS in 2008.
The unemployment rate, according to the expanded definition of unemployment, increased by 1.2 percentage points to 44.4% in quarter 2:2021 compared to quarter 1:2021.
Alas, South Africa’s unemployment rate has been recorded as the highest compared to their African counterparts such as Namibia and Nigeria.
The agricultural sector observed employment gains of 69,000 with provinces such as the Western Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, North West and Limpopo recording an increase in employment.
A decrease has been noted in the Eastern Cape by 19,000, the Northern Cape by 9,000, Gauteng by 8,000 and Mpumalanga by 18,000.
According to an article on Agrisa, most concerning is the sector continuing to see a decrease in skilled agriculture as it records a loss in employment from 62,000 in Q1:2021 to 45,000 in Q2:2021. This is a 27,4% quarter to quarter decrease and a 33,2% year on year decrease.
