Soybean Production in South Africa Could Reach 1.62 M Tons by 2020

A FAS-GAIN Report on Soybean production in South Africa has been recently published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Report highlights the current consumption of South Africa which is about 1.3 million tons of oilseed meal for animal feed. In addition, the South African Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) has predicted that with the increased population by 2020, the country's demand for soybean meal will double to 1.8 million tons. Moreover, the country imports 90 percent of its soybean meal from Argentina, and only 100,000 tons is produced locally.

BFAP believes that expansion of the soybean area and increased soybean yield could be the solutions for this increased demand. In the past ten years, the area planted to soybeans in South Africa more than doubled from 134,000  hectares in 2001/02 to 311,000 hectares in 2010/2011. In addition, a record soybean crop was achieved at 561,000 tons in 2010/11. It is thus imperative that Africa could reach 1.62 million tons of soybean production by 2020.

This increase in soybean production has been made and is expected to continue because of the availability of genetically modified soybean seeds in South Africa and the current practice of mechanization in soybean production. The report also reveals that farmers have realized the benefits of planting soybeans as a rotation crop with corn which also makes the soil nitrogen rich.

See the full report at http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Soybean%20production%20in%20South%20Africa%20could%20reach%201.62%20million%20tons%20_Pretoria_South%20Africa%20-%20Republic%20of_11-24-2010.pdf.