The Agri Eastern Cape Congress kicked off at the Mentors Country Estate in Jeffreys Bay on 31 July 2024.
The theme "Positivity Through Tough Times" aims to uplift communities who are struggling during these difficult times in agriculture and to assure them that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
We started Day 1 of Congress with the President of Agri EC, Peter Cloete delivering his presidential address to the delegates, followed by our first guest speaker, Christelle Grobler, an economist from Standard Bank. Her topic covered "Promising Improvement". She discussed the positive and negative changes in the markets such as the GDP, oil and PGM prices. Interestingly enough she mentioned that employment has now only finally recovered to its pre-pandemic level, but that the consumer income growth is slowing down. Christelle reassured the delegates that things are looking up.
After our delegates heard from the economist, Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen took the podium as the keynote speaker. He assured the delegates that the Agricultural Sector will be his main focus, and hard work is going into improving and implementing structures such as the protection of farm workers, young farmer programs and most importantly food security. He also mentioned that biosecurity is a key element which we need to focus on if South Africa wants to export products to new markets. Minister Steenhuisen chose the agriculture portfolio because he believed that is where he could make the biggest change. He believes there are great opportunities for job creation and economic development to improve South Africa's economic health.
After a very informative morning, the delegates were addressed by Johann Kotzé, CEO of Agri SA. Mr Kotzé compared agriculture and farming to the challenge of climbing Mount Everest, because the storms on Mount Everest never stop and if you want to reach the top, you need to learn how to dance with the wind. Agriculture has to be approached the exact same way.
In a different venue at the same time, we hosted a Ladies Day for the farmers wives who attended congress. The ladies were blown away by the presentation from Isak Staats from BKB about failing. They were also addressed by Karen Mcewan from Karoo Markets, who shared a recipe and tips for gardening with them, as well as Veronica Charles, who demonstrated the process of making lotions.
The Agri EC Awards dinner, which was proudly sponsored by Standard Bank, quickly approached on the evening of Congress Day 1. Trophies were awarded to Agri EC councillors, Agricultural Associations and special guests but most importantly the Toyota Young Farmer of the Year winner was announced.
We would like to congratulate Mr Dwayne Kaschula on being announced the winner of the Agri EC Toyota Young Farmer of the Year. He has worked extremely hard to be where he is today and deserves the recognition and award. We would like to wish him good luck at the National Young Farmer competition later in the year. We would also like to congratulate the other three Young Farmer of the year finalists, Peet Coetzee, Pieter Jordaan and Jonathan Willows, it is a great achievement to have come this far in this competition.
Day 2 of the Agri EC Congress consisted of the Red Meat Producers' Organisation Congress. A focus point of the RPO Congress was the Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak within the Eastern Cape. This has taken a huge toll on the farmers in the Kouga municipality area. We received great feedback from our guest speakers, Dewald Olivier from RMIS, Dan Kriek from NWGA and Jason Kümm from Agri EC, regarding factors such as traceability, stock theft reporting, disease reporting, FMD updates and economic predictions. We ended the day with financial approvals followed by the closing of Congress by the Deputy President of Agri EC, Eben du Plessis.
Agri Eastern Cape is extremely pleased by the attendance to Congress as well as the Ladies Day with 2024 being reported as one of the largest attendance records in Agri EC history.
Our Corporate Members turned up with good spirit and interacted with the delegates during the corporate interaction sessions.
Thank you to everyone who made the effort to join us!
At Congress elections are held for the Board of Directors, General Affairs Chamber, Commodity Chamber and Corporate Chamber.
Election results are as follows:
General Affairs Chamber Executive Committee
Chairperson - Stefan Erasmus
Vice-Chair - Kate Webster
Additional Member- Grewar Oosthuizen
Young Farmer Chairman- James Miller
Commodity Chamber Executive Committee
Chairperson - Frik van Rooyen
Vice-Chair - John Hurter
Corporate Chamber Executive Committee
Chairperson - Karel Jordaan
Vice-Chair - Tink Strydom
Additional Member- Dirk Odendaal
Board of Directors
President - Peter Cloete
Deputy President - Eben du Plessis
CEO - Brent McNamara
Co-Opted Director - Coert Jordaan
General Affairs Chamber - Duncan Currie
General Affairs Chamber - Christo Venter
General Affairs Chamber - Peter Neave
General Affairs Chamber - Johan Wege
Commodity Chamber - Frik van Rooyen
Corporate Chamber - Karel Jordaan
Independant Member - James Powell
Congratulations to all the elected officials.
