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

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?

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.