By Akani Nkuna
Gauteng finance and economic development MEC Lebogang Maile has highlighted the importance of agro-processing, saying it boosts the economy and plays an important role in improving people’s lives.
“Food security and mental health share a profound relationship influenced by multifaceted factors like socio-economic conditions, access to nutritious food and societal inequalities. Agro-processing holds not just manufacturing and economic growth value, but socio economic and human development value, too,” Maile said.
“This is especially important in the context of the Gauteng province where a persistent cost of living crisis has brought many families on the brink, with unemployment, food insecurity and hunger being the most pronounced effects of the crisis.”
Maile was speaking during the first day of the inaugural two-day Gauteng Agro-Processing and Convention Expo in Midrand on Thursday. It is intended to drive regional growth and included representatives from France, Netherlands, China and the United States.
The expo brought together industry leaders, small and medium enterprises in the agro-processing sector, government officials and investors.
Maile said that agro-processing played a significant role in Gauteng’s economy, contributing 33% to the total manufacturing output.
Additionally, he said that the province’s geographical position, logistical advantage and its strong infrastructure allowed it to provide many important economic opportunities due to its proximity to large inland markets and neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique.
This made it a central point for “domestic and export oriented agro-processing”.
“Thus, for us, the agro-processing industry provides an opportunity to address some of the salient challenges that confront the residents of our province and a chance to build an economy that grows in the hands of the people,” Maile added.
The MEC said because labour varied between the primary and tertiary sector, agro-processing was important in addressing unemployment.
“The organic link of the primary sector, the secondary sector as well as the tertiary sector makes the agriculture industry critical for employment creation and poverty eradication. Moreover, the industry value chain has a sizeable labour, capital ratio which makes it an important source of labour intensive growth,” he added.
Agriculture and rural development MEC Vuyiswa Ramokgopa told the conference it was time that the province moved from fragmented efforts into integrated value chains, fostering collaborative culture amongst key stakeholders, both private and public.
She said that practical implementations ought to prevail over policy ambitions. This would deal with the structural challenges in the province.
“We cannot just speak about public-private partnerships, we must create the real platforms for that collaboration, and hopefully the [expo] becomes one of them. This province already [contributes] more than R78 billion to the national economy through agro-processing which accounts for 5.4% of GP’s GDP,” said Ramokgopa.
The MEC said her department along with the National Empowerment Fund would launch a R100 million blended finance programme in the 2025/26 financial year to offer a combination of grants and loans to qualifying agro-processing businesses. There would be an increased focus on township operations.
“By improving access to affordable capital, we are building the financial infrastructure needed to power a more inclusive, more resilient agro-processing economy. But it is not enough, we have big dreams and big dreams need big pockets,” she added.
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