Ministers of Agriculture Thoko Didiza and Trade Minister Ebrahim Patel have welcomed China’s lift of restrictions on South African wool. File Picture: Nardus Engelbrecht SAPA
Pretoria - Chinese authorities have lifted a ban on South African wool imports, which was imposed in response to the Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks in South Africa and rattled the local wool business.
“After conducting a full consultation and risk-evaluation process, the General Administration of Customs of China and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China have lifted the ban on wool and other cloven-hoofed animals' skin products imported from South Africa,” the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
“China and South Africa are important economic and trade partners, with a long history of cooperation. The Chinese Embassy will continue to work extensively in South Africa to elevate further the unparalleled bilateral trade and economic cooperation.”
Statistics released by the embassy showed that China has been South Africa's largest trading partner for 13 consecutive years.
“In 2021, the total trade volume between China and South Africa reached $54.35 billion (about R926.5 billion), with a year-on-year growth of 50.7%, of which China's imports from South Africa reached $33.23 billion, up by 59.6% year-on-year,” the embassy highlighted.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Ministers of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza and Trade Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel have welcomed the decision by China to lift the restrictions.
“We welcome the decision by the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China to lift the ban on the wool and other cloven-hoofed animals' skin products imported from South Africa as announced today,” said Didiza.
Patel added: “The engagements with the People’s Republic of China have been conducted in a positive manner, and the coordinated efforts by different parts of the SA government greatly assisted”.
South Africa produces over 42 million kilograms of wool from 8 000 commercial sheep farmers. Additional to this number of commercial farmers, there are 40 000 communal smallholder farmers who contribute 14% of the total wool exports.
According to the two departments, these farmers would have suffered an irrecoverable loss of R730 million if the restrictions continued.
The wool export industry is worth R1 billion in South Africa.
“This ban on wool, which was harvested in the last season, would have irrecoverably dented the wool industry since this year’s harvesting is in full swing. This means the industry would have had to incur losses of two seasons,” the departments added.
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