Annual Agri EC Congress Feedback 2025

Another successful Annual Congress has come to an end! On the 6th and 7th of August, Agri Eastern Cape together with the EC RPO, hosted their Congress at Mentors Country Estate in Jeffrey's Bay.

Due to the uncertainty around sustainability and a greener economy in the agricultural sector, it is our duty to educate and inform the delegates in order to prepare them for what is to come, which lead to the chosen theme of Congress, "Your Footprint in Agriculture".

Agri EC President, Peter Cloete, kicked off with his Presidential Address where he addressed the importance of the theme to set the scene for the rest of Congress. Day 1 was jam packed with four guest speakers taking the stage. Firstly, we were addressed by Billy Tom, President/CEO of Isuzu Motors South Africa, who spoke about the importance of doing business in a rapidly changing world and how Isuzu Motors has taken on the challenges to adapt to sustainable measures.

Before our next guest speaker took the podium, it was announced that Peter Cloete and Eben du Plessis were re-elected in their positions of President and Deputy President, and we would like to congratulate them and wish them the best of luck for their next term.

Dr James Blignaut, a well-known Professor, addressed the delegates following the election of the President and Deputy President. His speech focused on agriculture's carbon footprint within the context of biogenetics starting from a global perspective moving towards carbon in the soil. Blignaut emphasized that we are currently experiencing a carbon derangement syndrome, which is due to the disconnection between people living in cities and those living in rural areas. He followed to say that our aim is to unbundle the derangement and find solutions.

After delegates were stunned by Prof Blignaut, Jason Kümm took the stage. Mr Kümm, no stranger to the Agri EC family, represented AgriSA and their position on sustainability. He shifted the focus to his portfolio, being rural safety, by looking at the sustainability in the context of security.

While Congress was taking place at Mentors, our lovely farmers' wives were treated with a day at the Mooihoek Strawberry Farm in Hankey. The ladies were addressed by Anene Jonck about tourism, from the Kouga municipality, they were also given a demonstration of floral arrangements by the one and only Natalie West from Port Elizabeth and lastly Madelé Ferreira, the owner of Mooihoek Strawberry Farm, who gave her views on entrepreneurship. The ladies were then given the opportunity to pick strawberries from the "Pick Your Own" experience at Mooihoek and they had a blast.

Congress was then presented with our next guest speaker, Dr Andrea Campher, from the Standard Bank Group. She gave her opinion and insights into sustainability from a banking and financing point of view. Her views on the topic of sustainability included, urgency and a topic full of opportunity. She connected the dots between climate, sustainability, ESG, consumer trends, finance, carbon credits and the future of food security in Africa. She stated that in order to feed Africa's population by 2050, we need to TRIPLE our food supply, yet farmers are threatened by climate change, and thus sustainability practices are important.

The day ended with our last speaker, Dewald Olivier, from the RMIS. He spoke from the perspective of the red meat industry. Dewald asked the question, how do we show the world what we are doing to improve sustainability? The real question remains; will the red meat sector remain globally competitive, economically viable and socially relevant for the next decade? He also carried on by highlighting the importance of meat exports.

We ended Day 1 with the Awards Dinner, the highlight of Congress. The dinner was once again sponsored by Standard Bank, to whom we are immensely grateful for the continuous support and participation. Many awards such as, Councillor awards, Agricultural Association awards and special awards were handed out, but most importantly the Eastern Cape Toyota Young Farmer of the Year was announced.

Everyone was anxiously waiting for Mr Ricky Pillay from Toyota SA to announce the winner. Our 4 finalists were all great contenders and all deserve the win, but unfortunately there could only be one winner. We would like to congratulate Mr André Kritzinger on being selected to represent the Eastern Cape at the National Young Farmer of the Year competition later this year. May the journey be very special and memorable. May the other three finalists, Siyabulela Sokomani, Paul de Klerk and Diana Arnold thrive in their farming careers and keep up the good work. They all have amazing farming enterprises and can be truly proud.

Day 2 of Congress consisted of the EC RPO section which focused on the red meat industry. We had three wonderful speakers attend who shared their insights and views to ensure delegates felt at ease as the industry is under pressure.

Louw van Reenen, from Beefmaster, kept the delegates interested and optimistic as he spoke about the new potential markets for red meat exports, and encouraged delegates to register with a traceability system to ensure access to better markets. van Reenen's speech was followed by Dr Frikkie Maré from RPO National. Frikkie focused on the meat prices and the fact that red meat producers do not receive the prices they should be and this can only be solved by improving the relationship between the producer and retailer. He carried on to say that we need to ensure that we leave a footprint behind that will have an influence on others.

Our last speaker of the day, Dr Johnny van der Merwe, from AMT, explained how the AMT market prices are determined and forecasted, which brought clarity amongst many and could ease the minds of those concerned. Overall, the range of guest speakers present were able to answer the questions delegates have been sitting on for a long time.

After a long but informative two days and after all the administrational matters were completed, Congress was closed off by Eben du Plessis, Deputy President of Agri Eastern Cape.

We are extremely pleased by the attendance and commitment from all delegates, Corporate and Commodity members and guests. Thank you to everybody for making the efforts and helping us make this event a huge success.

At Congress many elections are held to determine the various Executive committees of the organization.

Results can be seen below:

A huge congratulations to all those elected.