23 November 2023
With the harvesting season for canola ending, indications point to the highest yield yet, surpassing 220 000 tons.
As the harvesting of canola is nearing completion, Southern Oil anticipates a record harvest of more than 220 000 tons, exceeding the 2019 yield of 94 317 tons by 130 000 tons.
Zander Spammer, Southern Oil’s agricultural resource manager, attributes the record-breaking harvest to favourable weather conditions, improved cultivars and enhanced farming practices.
Plantings covered more than 120 198 hectares in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape, especially the southern Cape, Overberg and Swartland.
Spammer says these regions are well-suited for canola cultivation due to excellent soil quality, winter rainfall, and warm, dry summers that allow for early autumn planting. The past year’s rainfall significantly benefited canola cultivation.
Southern Oil, as South Africa’s largest purchaser of canola, says it can process the substantial harvest with its existing pressing capacity. Board chairperson Francois Swanepoel says the company has expanded its pressing capacity and will continue to do so. Southern Oil will always buy the entire crop, he says.
While South Africa can meet local demand for canola oil, it is a net importer of fats and oils and Southern Oil says this makes the country vulnerable to price fluctuations. External events such as the Ukraine war, droughts in Spain and South America, a Turkish ban on olive oil exports and production issues in Malaysia have adversely affected local prices, underlining the importance of local production.
Southern Oil aims to encourage local production, with the goal of making South Africa self-sufficient and less vulnerable to fluctuating international plant oil prices.
