2. Legislative Mandate

The Marketing of Agriculture Products Act, No.47 of 1996 (amended in 1997 and 2001) provided the establishment of the NAMC and its mandate is spelled out in the Act.

The role of the NAMC is "to advice the Minister of Agriculture on the application and coordination of the agriculture marketing policy in accordance with national economic goals, social and developmental policies and international trends, as well as matters relating to statutory measures affecting the marketing of agriculture products".

The objectives of the Act are to:

· Increase market access for all market participants

· Promote the efficiency of the marketing of agriculture products

· Optimise export earnings from agriculture products

· Enhance the viability of the agriculture sector

Since one of the activities of the NAMC is to promote the objectives of the Act, the performance of NAMC should be assessed in terms of its progress in addressing the objectives of the Act.

3. Human Resource Management

In terms of gender and race the staff component of NAMC is demographically representative. However, no disabled person is employed in NAMC.

4. Programme Performance

NAMC has five key programmes, comprising Council, Administration, Horticulture, Field Crops, and Livestock.

The highlights of the 2004/05 financial year included:

· The completion of investigations into the marketing of specific agriculture products.

· The evaluation of various statutory measures in terms of the Act.

· Twenty-four workshops held in the 9 provinces in order to create awareness among black farmers of the marketing dispensation in South Africa.

4.1 Programme: Council

The aims of the programme are to:

· Provide leadership to the organisation; to provide strategic advice to the Minister on all matters relating to agricultural marketing.

· Act as accounting authority of the NAMC.

The council has met its targets in terms of meetings conducted and submissions to the Minister. It failed to meet its target of having four workshops with emerging farmers per province. Instead of the targeted 36 workshops, the Council managed to hold 24 workshops. The council did not have any workshops in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

4.2 Programme: Administration

The aim of the programme is to provide administrative support to the Management of the NAM C.

Programme 3: Horticulture

The measurable objective is to have an understanding of the constraints and opportunities with regard to market access for subtropical fruit, citrus, sugar, flower, fresh produce, deciduous fruit, canning fruit, dried fruit and wine industries, particularly for emerging farmers.

The following statutory measures were undertaken during the period under review:²

· Deciduous fruit: request for implementation of new four-year period of statutory measures for table grapes.

· Dried Fruit: Request for implementation of new four-year period of statutory measures for dried fruit.

In this period, an investigation report on the status and participation of blacks in the agricultural marketing chain and an International Competitiveness study were completed, and forwarded to the Minister

4.4 Programme: Field Crops

The following activities were undertaken in the period under review:

· Investigation study on Lucerne industry, to identify problems and opportunities for sustainable growth and development in the industry. Recommendations of the study were forwarded to the Minister.

· Meetings were held with stakeholders in the tea industry. The objective of the meeting was to inform them about problems faced by the tea growers in the country and socio-economic impact of the untimely closure of the tea estates.

· NAMC participated in the maize study project. The objective 6f the project was to provide policy makers in Southern Africa with information that can help implement food policies leading to improved household security and agriculture productivity growth.

· Report by the Food Price Monitoring Committee

4.5 Programme: Livestock

The statutory measures investigations undertaken during the period under review were dairy, red meat and wool. Also under this period, a study on the goat industry to investigate marketing constraints and opportunities for goat farmers in South Africa was finalised.

5. Financial Analysis

· The Auditor General issued an unqualified report Questions

· What measures are in place to ensure that marketing information is accessible to emerging farmers in all provinces? Is the information you provide to farmers easy to understand so that informed business decisions could be made?

· How much of the levies collected has been used to fund the empowerment of blacks in the areas of training, exposure and market access?

· One of the challenges facing land beneficiaries and emerging farmers in attaining viable businesses is the lack of access to markets. How has NAMC been of assistance to emerging farmers needing access to markets?

· What were the factors that resulted in the failure to have 36 workshops as planned? Are there any specific stumbling blocks that disallowed the NAMC in having workshop in KZN and Gauteng?

· What is the status of participation and access of black farmers to Fresh Produce and wine industries markets? What could be done to improve the situation if it is not good?

· What is the impact of imports on South African farmers? What measures the Minister could take to deal with any negative impacts?

· What is the competitive status of South Africa agriculture products and what measures need to be taken to ensure that South African farmers compete effectively in the international market?

Sources

NAMC Annual Report, 2004

NAMC Annual Report, 2005

Agricultural Marketing News, Vol.1 March 2003