South African Farm Groups Urge BRICS to Remove Agricultural Trade Barriers
SOUTH AFRICA · TRADE
Key Facts
- —The call AgriSA and Agbiz used the BRICS Business Council meeting in New Delhi to urge member governments to cut farm tariffs and ease sanitary rules.
- —The gap South Africa exported about US$1.1 billion in farm goods to BRICS in 2024 — just 0.04% of the bloc’s US$272 billion agricultural import bill.
- —The asymmetry Only 41.5% of South Africa’s farm tariff lines are bound at the WTO, against near-full coverage in most BRICS peers — and trade remains primary goods out, manufactures in.
- —The wins China granted zero-tariff access for South African cherries this week; India recently widened treatment options for South African citrus.
- —The venue The push lands ahead of the BRICS Business Forum and the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi.
Politically, BRICS has never been closer. Commercially, South African farmers still barely sell into it — and the country’s biggest farm organizations say the bloc’s own rules are the reason.
BRICS agricultural trade is failing South African farmers, and the country’s farm lobby took that message to New Delhi this week. The Agribusiness Working Group — comprising Agbiz and Agri SA, the bodies representing commercial farmers and agribusiness — urged BRICS governments to lower import tariffs and remove non-tariff barriers that limit food trade inside the bloc.
“Higher tariffs and complex or unnecessarily restrictive sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements continue to constrain deeper agricultural trade within BRICS,” said Wandile Sihlobo, who chairs the working group and is Agbiz’s chief economist. “Some BRICS countries currently enjoy more favourable trading terms with markets outside the grouping than with fellow BRICS members,” SAnews reported from New Delhi.
Timed for the Summit Run-Up
The call was issued after the group’s participation in the BRICS Business Council meeting on Thursday, held ahead of the BRICS Business Forum and the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in the Indian capital. The timing is deliberate: the farm groups want agriculture on the agenda while leaders and trade officials are gathered in one place.
Sihlobo framed the ask as two practical tracks rather than a grand bargain: progressive tariff reductions on priority commodities and trade corridors, and regulatory cooperation on SPS rules — including pilot mutual-recognition arrangements to cut duplicated testing and border delays. A full BRICS agricultural free-trade agreement, he conceded, is not realistic yet, “but the potential for such an arrangement should remain under consideration.”
A US$272 Billion Market, a US$1.1 Billion Foothold
The numbers behind the frustration come from the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC). South Africa’s agricultural exports to BRICS rose by US$194 million between 2020 and 2024, reaching an estimated US$1.1 billion — yet the bloc’s combined farm import bill surpassed US$272 billion, leaving South African penetration at 0.04%, NAMC’s trade commentary shows.
Sihlobo puts the annual BRICS import figure even higher — above US$300 billion — with China and India taking the lion’s share of demand for grains, oilseeds, fruit, wine, beef, pork and poultry. China alone absorbs roughly 70% of what little South Africa sells into the bloc, and BRICS as a whole takes under 10% of South Africa’s total agricultural exports.
South Africa’s Own Tariff Paradox
The farm groups’ case rests partly on South Africa being the relatively open partner. WTO tariff profiles put the country’s average applied most-favoured-nation tariff on farm goods at roughly 10%, though with sharp peaks — up to 96% on some dairy lines and 82% on meat and edible offal. The structural quirk is commitment, not level: only 41.5% of agricultural tariff lines are bound at the WTO, NAMC notes, against near-full binding coverage in most BRICS peers.
The deeper asymmetry is in what crosses the borders. South Africa ships primary and lightly processed farm products to BRICS partners and imports higher-value manufactures back. Tariff cuts alone would not erase that pattern, but the groups argue nothing else can start without them.
Wins at the Margins Show What Is Possible
The push lands in a week that also delivered a concrete market-access prize. Agriculture Minister Willie Aucamp signed a protocol with China’s General Administration of Customs granting South African cherries zero-tariff access to China for the first time — a market that imported almost 587,000 tonnes of cherries worth about US$3.3 billion in 2025. The government estimates the opening could create around 600 jobs, and a blueberry protocol is in advanced negotiation, EWN reported.
India, meanwhile, approved additional cold-treatment options for South African citrus earlier this year, easing the phytosanitary bottleneck on one of the country’s biggest export crops. Both wins sit inside a broader 2026 framework: the China-Africa economic partnership arrangements signed in May have steadily widened the lane for South African farm goods.
What to Watch
The immediate test is whether any of this enters the language of the New Delhi summit declarations — SPS pilot programs and tariff-corridor transparency are the specific hooks to watch. Beyond that, the blueprint is visible: bilateral protocols like the cherry deal, multiplied across commodities. It is the patient version of the influence contest The Rio Times maps in Africa: The New Scramble — access negotiated one fruit at a time, while the bloc’s politics promise something bigger.
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