Steenhuisen plans to use Zelensky's visit to SA to bolster agri trade

JOHANNESBURG - Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said that he plans to use Ukraine’s visit to South Africa to bolster agricultural trade.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit South Africa for the first time on Thursday.

The meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to strengthen ties between the two countries and comes amid global efforts to secure a peace deal with Russia in the longstanding war.

Steenhuisen hosted industry leaders and policymakers at the G20 agricultural working group in Durban on Wednesday, where he confirmed he would also be in the room when a South African delegation meets with Zelensky.

"Particularly of interest to me, is fertiliser. Ukraine is one of the largest fertiliser producers in the world and as you would know, many of us small-scale farmers and large-scale farmers struggle with the input cost of fertilisers and obviously this drives up the cost of production and is ultimately reflected in the cost of food on the shelves," said Steenhuisen.

With Ukraine as a major exporter of grains globally, Steenhuisen said the country was important to South Africa.

He added: "It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this year, but we had a tough year last year with some of the grains and we needed to impact the supplement. This year looks like we’re going to have a better crop and hopefully, there’ll be better opportunities for export but it’s always important to make sure you’ve got a continuous supply of grain and they are one of the largest grain exporters."