Some background

From SAPA 5 May 2007

Quiet Organic Revolution in South Africa

Author: Clare Byrne

South African Press Association. (Source)

In an emerging market such as South Africa the move to organic production is usually a economic rather than an ideologically-driven decision. A quiet revolution is taking place in the orchards of the Western Cape. After decades of trying to coax fruit onto the trees with the aid of chemicals, fruit farmers are packing in the pesticides and deciding to grow green. Organic farming has come to South Africa, where it is being billed, not only as a profitable enterprise, but as a panacea for poor soil quality in growing regions. From an estimated five million rand before 2003, sales of organic food grown in South Africa - domestic sales and exports combined - jumped to R155m in 2005, with an exponential increase expected again in 2006/2007, according to Organics South Africa trade organisation. After a slow start the rate of conversion to organic farming has accelerated. Of the 230 certified organic or in-conversion operations in South Africa in 2005, 75% have started organic processes in the previous two years. South African retailers are also, belatedly, falling in behind organics. Organic tomatoes, apples and potatoes are now widely available in supermarkets, from the mass-market Pick 'n Pay and Checkers chains to Woolworths. In an emerging market such as South Africa the move to organic production is usually a economic rather than an ideologically-driven decision.

Cheap labour

With the global market for organic food growing at a runaway 35%, new suppliers are being urgently sought, particularly in Europe and the United States. In these markets, high labour costs act as a deterrent to a shift to organic farming. South African farmers, on the other

hand, have access to a large pool of cheap labour. With a minimum wage of R885 a month for farm workers in rural areas, most commercial farmers can afford several pairs of hands when it comes to weeding. For Modderfontein Farm's Mike Stekhoven the shift to organics on his 2

500-hectare farm two hours north of Cape Town was the only way to secure future profitability.

"I'm a businessman," he says. "Conventional farming offers no return."

The citrus industry, like the wine industry, is periodically beset by gluts in production, pushing down prices and squeezing producers' margins. Stekhoven produces 56 hectares of citrus and 130 hectares of rooibos tea on 800 hectares of arable land, with plans to expand the citrus crop to 100 hectares. Although five years after beginning the conversion to organic, Modderfontein's citrus crops are still a fraction of what they used to be, Stekhoven estimates that the profits, when they come, will be mouthwatering. Apart from higher prices for organics, farmers in the Western Cape give another reason for eschewing conventional agriculture: decades of heavy nitrate and fertiliser usage has robbed the already poor soil of its nutrients.

Killing off friendly bacteria

Hennie Saaiman, a potato farmer-turned consultant on biological agriculture, notes that in the late 1970s, 20kg of nitrates were recommended to secure two tons of wheat in South Africa. Today, to

obtain the same yield requires an input of 55kg. "If we hadn't made that change (to organic farming) we wouldn't still be here," says Mike Prevost, owner of Lorraine Farm in the Elgin Valley, who pioneered the production of organic apples and pears in the area east of Cape Town in

the late 1990s. Fruit farming is notorious for heavy spraying regimes, he says. While it rids the fruit of pesky bugs it also kills off friendly bacteria. The more Mike sprayed, the more fertiliser he needed, locking him into a vicious cycle of rising inputs costs. Eight years after deciding he was "tired of working for the chemical industry", Prevost is now in his fourth season of fully organic farming, producing 700 tons of apples and 100 tons of pears for the domestic and export markets.

Nourished by compost made of cow manure, bird droppings, mulched apple and other natural ingredients, the soil now boasts a richer moister texture, and, Prevost maintains, his fruit has "better legs" to withstand extreme weather. The Western Cape is at the coal face of climate change in South Africa, with rising temperatures, increased drought and altered rainfall already making an appearance.

A market for their output

Fruit farmers complain of mildew on grapes from unseasonable rains and of unduly hot spells robbing apples of moisture. Whatever the reasons for the shift, organic farmers are assured of a market for their output, with signs of South African, European and American importers all

starting to vie for supply. Tired of being thrown low-grade fruit by producers who send the cream of their crop overseas, Pick 'n Pay is backing a scheme to boost production and ensure a more varied supply. Organic Freedom Project, a non-profit organising, recently announced plans to create 100,000 jobs in organic food and biofuel production in South Africa by 2014. Europe's largest organic fruit and veg importer, Dutch company Eosta is also looking to secure its supply lines in South Africa against competition from American importers willing to pay almost

double for a carton of oranges. The Nature & More label - developed by Eosta before being spun off into a separate foundation - aims to bring consumers closer to growers in faraway countries. A sticker on the product contains a code that customers can enter on a website to obtain a rating of the farm's environmental and social commitment.

From the website of the Rotterdam Convention 5 May 2007

Overview

The text of the Convention was adopted on 10 September 1998 by a Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The Convention entered into force on 24 February 2004.

The objectives of the Convention are:

• to promote shared responsibility and cooperative efforts among Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm;
• to contribute to the environmentally sound use of those hazardous chemicals, by facilitating information exchange about their characteristics, by providing for a national decision-making process on their import and export and by disseminating these decisions to Parties.

The Convention creates legally binding obligations for the implementation of the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure. It built on the voluntary PIC procedure, initiated by UNEP and FAO in 1989 and ceased on 24 February 2006.

Major Provisions:

The Convention covers pesticides and industrial chemicals that have been banned or severely restricted for health or environmental reasons by Parties and which have been notified by Parties for inclusion in the PIC procedure. One notification from each of two specified regions triggers consideration of addition of a chemical to Annex III of the Convention, Severely hazardous pesticide formulations that present a hazard under conditions of use in developing countries or countries with economies in transition may also be nominated for inclusion in Annex III.

There are 39 chemicals listed in Annex III of the Convention and subject to the PIC procedure, including 24 pesticides, 4 severely hazardous pesticide formulations and 11 industrial chemicals. Many more chemicals are expected to be added in the future. The Conference of the Parties decides on the inclusion of new chemicals.
Once a chemical is included in Annex III, a "decision guidance document" (DGD) containing information concerning the chemical and the regulatory decisions to ban or severely restrict the chemical for health or environmental reasons, is circulated to all Parties.

Parties have nine months to prepare a response concerning the future import of the chemical. The response can consist of either a final decision (to allow import of the chemical, not to allow import, or to allow import subject to specified conditions) or an interim response. Decisions by an importing country must be trade neutral (i.e., apply equally to domestic production for domestic use as well as to imports from any source).

The import decisions are circulated and exporting country Parties are obligated under the Convention to take appropriate measure to ensure that exporters within its jurisdiction comply with the decisions.

The Convention promotes the exchange of information on a very broad range of chemicals. It does so through:

• the requirement for a Party to inform other Parties of each national ban or severe restriction of a chemical;
• the possibility for Party which is a developing country or a country in transition to inform other Parties that it is experiencing problems caused by a severely hazardous pesticide formulation under conditions of use in its territory;
• the requirement for a Party that plans to export a chemical that is banned or severely restricted for use within its territory, to inform the importing Party that such export will take place, before the first shipment and annually thereafter;
• the requirement for an exporting Party, when exporting chemicals that are to be used for occupational purposes, to ensure that an up-to-date safety data sheet is sent to the importer; and
• labeling requirements for exports of chemicals included in the PIC procedure, as well as for other chemicals that are banned or severely restricted in the exporting country.

From Legalbrief 24 April 2007

Agriculture: Major retailers court organic market
SA's three largest food retailers are actively courting the organic produce market, while government agencies are hoping, paradoxically, Business Report notes, to have the first genetically modified crops on supermarket shelves soon. Last week Pick 'n Pay said it would not stock a GM potato, which the Agricultural Research Council hopes to commerc ialise, until it could provide conclusive scientific evidence on the biosafety of the product. Pick 'n Pay has recently co-founded a massive job creation project known as the Organic Freedom Project, in a bid to boost the availability of organic foodstuffs. Big local retailers, including Woolworths and Shoprite Checkers, are taking their lead from Europe, where demand for organic food is growing at 42% a year.