VITALARCH™

In mid-April, Dutch port authorities flagged several shipments of soybean meal arriving from Argentina. The reason? The meal contained traces of a genetically modified soybean variety called HB4 — a drought-tolerant crop approved in Argentina, Brazil, and the United States, but not in the European Union. Under EU rules, there’s no grey area: if an unauthorised GM trait is detected, the shipment is rejected. No exceptions, no tolerance thresholds. What happened next is a good

South Africa enters 2026 on one of its strongest agricultural footings in years. Encouraged by La Niñadriven rainfall, farmers expanded total summer crop plantings for the 2025/26 season by 13% relative to the prior season, to just over 4.9 million hectares. Maize plantings reached approximately 2.67 million hectares. National dam levels stood above 90% full by mid-December 2025, dramatically reducing irrigation pumping costs for water-intensive operations.

Global agriculture is moving fast on resilience, biologicals, carbon markets, partnerships and climate-aligned investment. But how does South Africa actually stack up against that outlook?

South African farmers continue to produce under difficult and changing conditions. They carry risk on behalf of households, communities, processors, retailers, and the broader economy.

S&P Global’s late-2025 agriculture sustainability outlook is useful not only as a global forecast, but as a benchmark for South Africa.[1] Against that benchmark, South Africa shows real strengths — including export capability, growing biologicals interest and movement on carbon-market and risk tools — but it also reveals major gaps in logistics, water governance, inclusion and execution.