Umhlanga: The government must create a better enabling environment for the macadamia sector by addressing constraints on market access, tariffs, infrastructure, logistics, regulation, investment, and skills. This was emphasized by the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition (dtic), John Steenhuisen, during the Macadamias South Africa (SAMAC) MacDay on the Road 2026 event in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal.
According to South African Government News Agency, MacDay on the Road 2026 is a regional engagement programme through which SAMAC takes its industry platform closer to growers in key macadamia-producing areas. The KwaZulu-Natal event is one of four regional engagements taking place during September. Steenhuisen noted that the international trading environment is becoming increasingly complex, with countries focusing more on food security, supply-chain resilience, standards, and domestic economic interests.
Steenhuisen pointed out that South African agricultural exporters can no longer take anything for granted. He stressed the need to deepen existing trade relationships while identifying new markets and opportunities for South African goods and services. Market diversification should remain a priority, requiring government and industry to identify growing demand, understand consumer needs, increase South Africa's market share, and address export barriers.
Highlighting efforts to expand agricultural market access, Steenhuisen mentioned the work to open the Chinese market to South African cherries. This example underscores the importance of government and industry cooperation on sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, market access, and tariffs. He emphasized that international demand for South African products exists, but price and tariff conditions affect competitiveness, with India being an example where tariff barriers remain a concern.
Steenhuisen committed to leveraging South Africa's trade and cooperation relationships to pursue improved tariff conditions for South African products while supporting existing growers and creating opportunities for new entrants and small-scale farmers. He stressed the importance of creating a better enabling environment for the sector to unleash talents, abilities, and innovations.
Infrastructure and logistics, particularly the efficiency of South Africa's ports, were also identified as critical to export competitiveness. Steenhuisen highlighted the public-private partnership at the Durban port as an opportunity to improve the movement of goods and support export-oriented sectors.
Looking ahead, he identified five priorities for strengthening the partnership between government and the macadamia industry: productivity; quality; market access, diversification and tariffs, value addition and inclusion, and sustainability. He emphasized improved yields and farm-level efficiency through mechanisation, new breeding techniques, biological inputs, and technologies such as drones. Consistent quality and food safety were stressed to protect the reputation of South African macadamias internationally.
Steenhuisen also highlighted the need to capture more value through processing, manufacturing, innovation, marketing, and branding, including products such as macadamia oil. He underscored the importance of making better decisions for the future in various areas, including orchards, water, research and technology, processing, quality, and markets.
He reiterated the dtic's commitment to working with the sector to address constraints and unlock opportunities. Steenhuisen encouraged growers, processors, researchers, industry organizations, investors, and government to use MacDay to identify practical actions and partnerships to move the industry forward.
