Income by type of product

Total income earned in the agriculture and related services industry was R450,2 billion in 2022 compared with R404,8 billion in 2021. This reflects an increase of 11,2% between 2021 and 2022. In 2022, ‘animals and animal products’ generated the largest sales (R172,8 billion), followed by ‘horticultural crops and products’ (R109,5 billion) and ‘field crops’ (R95,4 billion). The highest percentage increases were recorded for income earned from the sale of ‘field crops’ (21,5%) and ‘other agricultural products’ (13,4%).

Income by enterprise size

Large enterprises contributed 69,0% or R310,3 billion of the total income in 2022, followed by small enterprises with a contribution of 17,2% or R77,4 billion. Medium and micro enterprises contributed 7,8% or R35,3 billion and 6,0% or R27,2 billion respectively (see Figure 2 below and Table 3 on page 10).

 Expenditure

Total expenditure incurred by the farming sector in 2022 was R424,1 billion compared with R379,2 billion in 2021 (an increase of 11,8%). The largest contributor to total expenditure was ‘purchases’ (54,0% of the total), followed by ‘salaries and wages’ (12,6%), ‘repairs and maintenance’ (4,9%) and ‘depreciation’ (4,7%).

Capital expenditure on new assets

The total capital expenditure on new assets in the agriculture and related services industry in 2022 amounted to R38,9 billion compared with R33,1 billion in 2021, an increase of 17,4%. ‘Motor vehicles, plant, machinery, tractors and other transport’ reported the largest increase, namely R3,6 billion (from R20,4 billion in 2021 to R24,0 billion in 2022).

 Employment

 The total number of persons employed in the agriculture and related services industry as at the end of June 2022 was 814 518 compared with 783 745 in June 2021, an increase of 3,9%.