By Maile Matsimela
South Africa’s soybean production has grown significantly since the dawn of democracy –from 67 700 tonnes in the 1993/94 production season to an expected 2,3 million tonnes in 2024/25. That’s according to agricultural economist and author Wandile Sihlobo.
Sihlobo says the growing demand for soybean oilcake or meal by the animal feed industry stimulated this growth.
“This, in turn, has been driven by an increase in the demand for high-protein food, particularly poultry products. South Africa’s per capita consumption of poultry meat has almost doubled over the past 17 years, currently estimated at around 41 kilograms.”
Sihlobo says to service the growing demand, South African agribusinesses, supported by the government, made investments to increase domestic soybean processing capacity from roughly 860 000 tonnes in 2012 to around 2.2 million tonnes now.
“This was also aimed at stimulating domestic soybean production as an import substitution strategy. The farmers responded positively to these demand changes, as evidenced by this season’s record harvest.”
Underpinning this positive production response, Sihlobo states, was an increase in the area planted and technological improvements, such as seeds, fertilisers and better farming practices.
“Regarding plantings, the soybean area increased 21-fold over the past 30 years to 1.2 million hectares in the 2024/25 production season.
“Yield improvements, which increased by 95% from the 1993/94 production season to over 2,0 tonnes per hectare this season, indicate the contribution of better farming practices and technological advancements.”
He highlighted that one of the most notable technological improvements was the adoption of genetically modified seeds (GM) in the early 2000s, which continues to spread across the country.
“In the 2024/25 production season, GM seed constituted roughly 95% of South Africa’s soybean plantings. This is the only country on the African continent that produces GM soybeans. Therefore, it is unsurprising that South Africa continues to enjoy tremendous growth in soybean output while production in other African countries remains pedestrian.”
This success, Sihlobo reckons, is not unique to South Africa as the world’s leading soybean producers, such as the US, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Canada and Uruguay, all grow GM soybeans. About 75% of global soybean production in the 2024/25 production season was GM.
Sihlobo noted that most importantly, the investment in expanding South Africa’s soybean processing capacity and improving production techniques have led to a success story regarding import substitution of soybean meal.
He said over 80% of the local soybean meal consumption was imported in 2006/07, but South Africa is now a net exporter.
“In the 2023/24 season, South Africa’s soybean exports are estimated at 570 000 tonnes.”
