Mmegi

SA counts the costs of veggie import bans

High demand: The vegetable import ban has been extended to December 2025
High demand: The vegetable import ban has been extended to December 2025

South Africa’s vegetable exports to Botswana dropped 55% in value in the first year of the import ban imposed by Gaborone. With other SACU states considering similar moves, the region’s “minnows” are forcing a shakeup, writes MBONGENI MGUNI

South African agricultural economists estimate that the value of the country’s vegetable exports to Botswana dropped by 55% in 2022, the first year of the partial horticultural import ban imposed by Gaborone to boost local production.

The figures released recently are the first indication of the impact of the import ban effected in January 2022 by government.

Editor's Comment
The State apparatus must be sanitised

When the State cannot rely on its own machinery to pursue suspected wrongdoing, repairing that machinery must become a national priority.The establishment of a Special Investigations and Asset Recovery Task Force may help government respond to the immediate challenge. However, Botswana cannot afford to leave the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) struggling whilst building...

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