Conference, 21 April 2006, Cape Town International Convention Centre
13 April 2006
The National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) and the Department of
Agriculture are co-hosting a conference on Comparative Country Experiences with
Agricultural Trade. This forms part of a series of events around the launch of
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Developmentâs (OECD) report on an
agricultural policy review for South Africa.
The experiences of various OECD and non-OECD countries with agricultural
policy reforms (including China, Brazil and New Zealand) will be presented. The
conference will focus on lessons for South Africa that can be drawn from these
experiences in the context of the OECD South African Report and the current
review of the agricultural marketing environment initiated by the Minister of
Agriculture and Land Affairs.
The highlights of the OECD South Africa report will be presented (the report
will be officially released at a separate event in Pretoria on 19 April).
Thereafter representatives from the OECD will highlight policy reforms in OECD
countries and look at lessons learnt from policy studies focused on non-OECD
countries. The experiences of New Zealand and Brazil will be examined and
thereafter a high level panel discussion will focus on the possible lessons and
implications for South Africa. The panel includes the following members: Johan
Dique (Managing Director: SENWES), Motsepe Matlala (President of National
African Farmers Union (NAFU), Professor Eckart Kassier (former Head of the
Department of Agricultural Economics: University of Stellenbosch and former
Chair: National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), Dr Tobias Doyer (CEO:
Agricultural Business Chamber), the honourable Dr AI van Niekerk (Member of
Parliament), Attie Swart (Assistant Director General Trade and Business
Development: Department of Agriculture), Prof Nick Vink (Head of the Department
of Agricultural Economics: University of Stellenbosch) and Hans van der Merwe
(Executive Director: Agri-SA).
Enquiries:
Chris Gladwin
NAMC
Tel: (012) 341 1115/400 9744
Cell: 082 481 7895
Steve Galane
Tel: (012) 319 7312
Cell: 083 635 7346
Issued by: Department of Agriculture and National Agricultural Marketing
Council
13 April 2006
