About
186
Publications
93,397
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
2,489
Citations
Introduction
I am an Emeritus Professor, formerly I taught at the University of Limpopo and then worked at the Development Bank of Southern Africa . I was President of the South African, African and International Associations of Agricultural Economists. My main research interests include African agricultural development, land reform, agricultural policy, and wine economics. I currently serve on the Boards of the South African Reserve Bank and of Rooibos, Ltd.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 1996 - present
Publications
Publications (186)
Our purpose here is to provide an introduction to the set of papers in this Special Edition on “The measurement of agricultural productivity in Africa” and to draw lessons for further research.
Accurate measures of productivity growth are an important policy tool but are difficult to obtain in South African circumstances. In this article, we review work on the measurement of farm-level productivity in South Africa since the earliest attempts at multifactor indices in the early 1990s. The focus is on total factor productivity, but single i...
A database of journal articles and conference papers that cover the economics of agricultural development in Africa during the period 2016–2020 was compiled. These papers are first described in terms of demographic and bibliometric criteria, followed by a network analysis of the main centers of origin and of influence of this research. Finally, thr...
South Africa has faced multiple waves of COVID-19 infections since March 2020 with various levels of economic restrictions imposed to control the pandemic’s spread. Such actions included intermittent bans on alcoholic beverage sales, which have had a substantial impact on the wine sector. This purpose of this paper is to quantify this impact, using...
The purpose of this article is to propose an improved methodology to
determine a viable farm size for potential emerging farmers as land
reform beneficiaries. Land reform in South Africa has been criticised
because of poor implementation and slow pace, accompanied by poor
productivity in redistributed land. To explain this, it has been suggested th...
Agriculture is the backbone of most sub-Saharan Africa economies, but environmental quality, so vital for agricultural production, is being challenged by climate change. However, most studies measure environmental quality using one variable, CO2 emissions. In this study, a more enhanced measure of environmental quality, which incorporates three ind...
This study examines the effects of economic growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) on child health outcomes measured by Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Child Mortality Rate Under 5 (CMRU5) with several control variables such as corruption, inequality and HIV among others. It analyzes South Africa's annual time series data for the period 1985–20...
In this paper, we analyze profit margins and markups of Fair Trade (FT) wines sold in the United States. We are particularly interested in whether and to what extent the FT cost impulse in production is passed on along the supply chain. We draw on a limited sample of about 470 South African wines sold in Connecticut and New Jersey in the fall of 20...
Poverty and corruption can both immiserate a nation. Globalisation through open trade can potentially increase economic growth, providing employment and increased incomes to the poor. Corruption can dampen or even reduce these positive developments. Although globalisation is considered instrumental in development strategies, theoretically, the impa...
OLIVIER VAN BEEMEN: Heineken in Africa: A Multinational Unleashed. Hurst and Company, London, UK, 2019, 256 pp., ISBN 978-1849049023 (hardcover), $23.30. - Volume 14 Issue 3 - Nick Vink
We assume that each region has its own competitive advantage in growing certain grape varieties, as all varieties have different capabilities to cope with specific weather or climate conditions.
In this paper we first analyze the effects of annual weather changes on yields in order to find, which weather is advantageous for which grape variety. Th...
The aggregate distortions to the incentives of South African agricultural producers have been estimated, but these measures have not been disaggregated to reveal individual agents’ incentives in a vertical value chain. In order to do this, the aggregate distortion estimates were first updated to account for the past decade, and then the wheat value...
Ecological modernization theories suggest that it is hard to determine a priori the environmental effects of urbanization, while neoliberal doctrine advocates a positive role of globalization in developing economies especially in terms of reducing poverty and inequality. Yet, the environmental effect of globalization is not unanimous. This study em...
The objective of this study was to improve our understanding of the diversity among emerging smallholders using various commonly used indicators. These were reviewed and applied to a sample of 379 emerging smallholders situated in three major smallholding districts within the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It was found that the typical emer...
This study compares long established and more recently developed wine regions in South Africa. Deterministic efficiency frontiers produce measures of technical efficiency and technical change over time and the results for scale efficiency for each farm and each year show why the farm size results in previous studies are somewhat weak and contradict...
Significant shifts in the type of foods consumed by South Africans have taken place since 1994 and packaged food and beverage innovation has accelerated since then. Globally, advances in science and technology have benefitted food processing and food manufacturing technologies and systems. Significant capital investments have been made by the South...
Purpose
The aim of this research was to investigate the relevance of expert opinions as a marketing tool for Pinotage amongst young South African student Millennials by means of sensory hedonic testing.
Design/methodology/approach
Sensory hedonic testing was used because it is necessary to examine the extent to which extrinsic cues influence a w...
In this article, medium-run cycles in wine production in South Africa are extracted and related to similar cycles in real GDP per capita during the same period. In addition to removing noise in the historical data, smoothing out short-run fluctuations also eliminates the short-run impact on agricultural production due to idiosyncratic shocks such a...
Chapter 7 revisits the development of the South African agricultural sector during the early mineral revolution (1886–1948) and contributes to the recent extension of the structural transformation literature that stresses the importance of taking underlying country fundamentals into account with development policy formation. This case illustrates t...
Cambridge Core - Natural Resource and Environmental Economics - Wine Globalization - edited by Kym Anderson
An assessment of the costs and benefits of using Acacia saligna(Port Jackson) and recycled thermoplastics for the production of wood polymer composites in the Western Cape province, South Africa
Acacia saligna (Port Jackson) is one of the most pervasive IAPs in South Africa. The government’s
control efforts have by and large not been co-financed by the private sector due to a lack of incentives.
Here we develop a system dynamics model to assess the costs and benefits of using the invasive Acacia
saligna for the production of wood polymer c...
The invasive Prosopis spp. tree is one of the major causes of disturbance affecting the Orange River water management areas in the Northern Cape, South Africa. These disturbances affect natural capital, such as reducing the stream flow of the Orange River, causing a decline in biodiversity of the native Nama Karoo vegetation, consuming excessive wa...
Efficiency, partly based on technology, is central to international competitiveness. This article applies a stochastic frontier inefficiency model to a panel of 77 wine grape farms in South Africa between 2005 and 2015 and allows the comparison of efficiency levels for the old established wine regions with those of newer entrants. Thus, we investig...
This paper analyzes wine price dispersion in the United Kingdom. In particular, we are interested in examining whether Fairtrade wines are different from non-Fairtrade wines. Because Fairtrade wines serve an additional social purpose, one may think that consumers search less aggressively for the outlet with the lowest price, thus allowing for a lar...
In 2013 the minimum agricultural wage in South Africa was increased by an unprecedented 51%. We use data on 77 Western Cape Province wine grape farms from 2005–2015 to estimate the impacts on employment. Previous post‐apartheid labour market reforms increased minimum wages substantially, but re‐entry to global markets after sanctions were lifted in...
div class="title">HENRY H. WORK : Wood, Whiskey and Wine: A History of Barrels. Reaktion Books, London, 2014, 240 pp., ISBN 9781780233567 (Hardback), £20.00.
- Volume 11 Issue 3 - Nick Vink
Wastewater has emerged as an alternative source of water. Since the agricultural sector remains the largest water user world-wide, it is the main potential user of treated wastewater. However, while there are trade-offs in using wastewater, it may be the only option in water scarce regions. South Africa has included water reuse as a policy option;...
Food consumption patterns in South Africa have changed dramatically over the past decades and likely will continue to change over the coming decades. Various food-related studies conducted over the last few decades indicate that food consumption shifts in South Africa have been towards a more Western-orientated diet, with nutritional consequences c...
ANIL HIRA (ed.): What Makes Clusters Competitive? Cases from the Global Wine Industry. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, 2013, 264 pp., ISBN 978-0-7735-4260-0, $39.95. - Volume 10 Issue 1 - Nick Vink
South Africa’s agricultural sector has undergone substantial policy reform since the dawn of
democracy in 1994. Now, twenty years later, it is an opportune time to look back at this period to
review key successes and failures. This article revisits South Africa’s context and policy at the
start of this period, the reforms that followed, and evaluat...
The purpose of this article is to explore some of the possible lessons for South African agriculture from the Brazilian experience. To this end, the article discusses the performance of Brazilian agriculture in terms of land and labour use, production, and exports. This is followed by aspects of Brazilian agricultural policies, namely farmer suppor...
Rooibos Ltd is the largest processor of Rooibos tea, and currently has a turnover of more than R250 million per year, experiencing strong turnover and export growth over the past few years. The production of the tea is a cyclical process, which creates unique challenges to the company. Key success factors include strong upstream and downstream cont...
Food insecurity is still remarkably high in the poorest areas of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Many rural households struggle to have sufficient access to the food they need or prefer. This article explores the extent of food access insecurity and assesses the perceived impact on food security of an Empowerment for Food Security Progr...
ELMARIESWART AND IZAKSMIT: The Essential Guide to South African Wines: Terroir and Travel. Wine Appreciation Guild, San Francisco, 1st ed., 2008 (first published in 2006 by Cheviot Publishing: Cape Town, SA, updated in 2009), 201 pp., ISBN 978-0-620-35500-1, $29.95. - Volume 8 Issue 1 - Nick Vink
ROBINVON HOLDT: Top 100 South African Wines and Wine Lists, 2012/2013. Wine Appreciation Guild: San Francisco, 2012, 288 pp., ISBN 978-0620529907, $24.95. - Volume 8 Issue 1 - Nick Vink
South African trade has been showing a growth increase in recent years, from R221 billion in 2001 to over R906 billion in 2014, which is equivalent to an annual average rate of 13%. The agricultural sector’s exports have increased even more rapidly, recording an annual growth rate of 14% between 2001 and 2014. The European Union (EU) has been South...
Although South Africa is food secure as a nation, many households remain food insecure. The government has recognized several key food security challenges in the Integrated Food Security Strategy (IFSS). However, South Africa still lacks specific and accepted methods to measure food security and currently has no regulated way of monitoring the food...
Small-scale agriculture is one of the few tools available to support improved rural livelihoods on a significant scale in South Africa. Access to output markets is a key factor in generating higher incomes. The rise of modern markets (supermarkets in particular) is generally viewed as positive for the rural poor, although most commentators accede t...
Conradie et al. (2009a and 2009b) identified the Central Karoo as the worst performing area in the Western Cape, but left the reasons for the region's declining total factor productivity (TFP) unexplained. The current paper uses a combination of literature review and analysis of anecdotal evidence to evaluate a set of hypothetical reasons for the d...
The African market has become increasingly important to South Africa's agricultural trade. Exports have been increasing rapidly, although imports have not kept pace. This pattern is also evident in the general trade in manufactured goods. The purpose of this article is to look at the best estimate conditiuons that will prevail with respect to trade...
The marketing of most agricultural products in South Africa was subject to intervention by statutory bodies over a period of some 60 years. At the time of the promulgation of the first legislation there was a vigorous debate on the predicted economic effects; in 1983 one of the architects of these instruments published a justification in these page...
Food security has become an important indicator of progress in agricultural development, but it is a concept that is hard to measure and that is context-specific. In this article an attempt is made to understand the four main pillars of food security — namely food availability, access to food, the utilisation of food and stability — in the context...
The main argument in this article is that agricultural economists in South Africa must address at least two fundamental questions, namely: (1) “What is the influence of public policy on the structure of agriculture?” and (2) “What is the influence of the governance of farm businesses on their success from a financial, economic, social and environme...
A free trade agreement (FTA) between SACU and Mercosur would be significant globally, as it would be a truly “south-south” relationship between three of the developing world's emerging agricultural powers, namely Argentina, Brazil and South Africa. In this article, the GTAP database and the associated general equilibrium model is used to assess the...
This report provides an overview of policy changes in South African agriculture over the past three decades, and of some of the associated impacts on output, trade patterns and employment. In agriculture, the story is one of widespread substitution of labour for capital. While the sector has shed more than a million jobs over the past four decades,...
This year marks the 50th year of our existence – Agrekon is in Volume 50, and next year will be the 50th Annual Conference (a conference having been skipped in 1976). This is young by most standards, but still makes us the 12th oldest surviving Agricultural Economics association in the world. In this latest history, we start with an assessment of t...
This paper models dairy farms in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, emphasising the complexities unique to this multi-product industry. Net and gross output approaches to measuring production are discussed and then tested using panel data from 37 dairy farms in KwaZulu-Natal from 1999 and 2007. Production functions for the three outputs: milk production,...
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to attempt to synthesise the lessons from at least four different ways of looking at the South Africa wine industry: economics, climatology, viticulture, and the sociology of work.
Design/methodology/approach
The economic performance of South Africa's wine industry since democratisation in the early 1990s is...
This article reports the results of a static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model on the possible liberalisation of agriculture and food trade in the OECD countries. Liberalisation of trade was simulated assuming a reduction in import tariffs, the tax rate on factor use and export subsidies in four steps of 25% points each. Such simulations w...
Supports to South African agriculture were stripped from the sector from 1994/95 to the end of the 1990s, and these domestic reforms were accompanied by the liberalisation of trade policies as border tariffs were reduced and export subsidies were eliminated under unilateral reductions that went beyond any mandatory requirements imposed by the World...
Agricultural Distortions Working Paper 38, December 2007 This is a product of a research project on Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, under the leadership of Kym Anderson of the World Bank"s Development Research Group (www.worldbank.org/agdistortions). The authors are grateful for helpful comments from workshop participants and for funding fr...
The South African deciduous fruit industry has experienced difficulties in the past few years. Most deciduous fruit producers have suffered from increased globalisation of markets; trade liberalisation; deregulation of the industry; advances in information technology; changes in consumer preference; over-supply of deciduous fruit in South Africa’...
The aim of this paper is to assess the amount of "policy space" available to increase tariff protection in South African agriculture. To this end, formal definitions for agricultural produce, actual import data, applied tariff data and bound tariff rates and tariff quota information were used to investigate the extent to which it is possible and fe...
Econometric demand and supply models of agricultural commodities and crops have been around for a long time with extensive research and adaptations being made in the grain and livestock sectors. This much attention has, however, not been afforded to long term commodities. This paper presents a partial equilibrium framework for modelling long term c...
This paper is one of five case studies which is a part of a larger project looking at the various effects that trade and investment can have on innovation. This paper studies the effect of deregulation and trade reform on South Africa's agriculture sector. South Africa's agriculture sector is highly dualistic consisting of a developed commercial se...
Reforms of agricultural marketing structures have been a major feature of agriculture in New Zealand and South Africa over the past two decades. The reforms in New Zealand varied, and were often measured and considered, with export control either officially or de facto existing in some sectors while others were cut adrift very quickly. Not surprisi...
The paper describes a 3- pronged analysis. The first illustrates agricultural production patterns in the region. The second maps trade flows within SADC and between SADC countries and the rest of the world, and includes a review of trade agreements and the existing trade modelling debate as relevant to the SADC region. Reference is made to the natu...
Traditional knowledge has been used, and is increasingly being used, in a wide range of industries for the development of new products. Increasing awareness of the economic value of biological diversity has resulted in industries seeking to exploit traditional knowledge and biodiversity through opportunistic behaviour (biopiracy). This is also happ...
South African grain cooperatives have responded to market reforms by changing their activities and increasing their efficiency. Prior to deregulation, they supplied inputs and marketed outputs through marketing boards and also acted as financial intermediaries by implementing discriminatory policies that favored commercial farmers. Using stochastic...
This article provides a framework for the analysis of the relationship between different macroeconomic, sector and commodity policies and the multiplier effects of agriculture. It starts with a listing of the macroeconomic, sector and commodity policies that have been included in the analysis. These should be considered in conjunction with the like...
The consumer price index was first used in 1707. In 1925 it became institutionalised when the Second International Conference of Labour Statisticians, convened by the ILO, promulgated the first international standards of measurement. These original standards have been revised three times and are currently under review. Statistics South Africa (Stat...
The concept of capacity-sharing (as a specific type of demand-orientated water management strategy) is a relatively newcomer on the South African water management regime and much debate is currently under way regarding the viability of the concept for the South African context. One of the main features is that it decentralises and integrates water...
There have been a number of recent reviews of contemporary South African agricultural policy that have considered the issues from different perspectives. Van Zyl, Vink, Kirsten & Poonyth in addressing the period of the 1990s, summarise the main policy changes that took place (land reform, institutional restructuring in the public sector, and market...
Most economists agree with the proposition that a minimum wage set above the market clearing equilibrium wage will cause unemployment. What happens when a minimum wage is set below the equilibrium wage is, however less clear. This is partly because the literature shows that the effect of a minimum wage will depend on the reason for its implementati...
In a context in which the framework of agricultural policy and business is changing radically the objective of the government and farmers should be to support the development of systems that look likely to be winners in the future. As a result this paper uses a Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) to determine whether wheat production would have a comparat...
This paper reports on a study that investigated the increase in food prices in South Africa. It is set against the scenario of an increasing inflation rate since September 2001. The June 2002 STATSSA figures estimated the annual inflation rate (CPIX) at 8.8% with food inflation being the major contributor with an annual increase of 14%. The high un...
