CAPE TOWN – The agriculture sector in the Western Cape will take an economic knock of more than R5-billion due to the impact of the drought.
GVA is a measure of all the goods and services produced by a sector.
The estimated number of job losses in the sector remains at 30,000 Winde said in a statement.
IN PHOTOS: Cape Town goes crazy as rain falls As a result, there has been a significant decline in farm output as farmers prioritise crops with higher profit margins, such as fruit, and abandon vegetables and other crops.
There was a reduction of about 1,000 hectares of area planted for both potatoes and onions.
Furthermore, smaller export volumes have resulted in income losses and export prices are being affected because fruit is smaller or sunburned.
Agriculture and agri-processing contribute a combined R54-billion to the provincial GVA.
Of all the province’s exports, 52% come from the agriculture and agri-processing sectors.
As a sector, it represents 10% of the provincial GDP and employs 340,000 people, mostly in rural areas.
READ: ‘Day zero’ pushed back further to July Winde further added that “we recognise how difficult this period has been for farmers.