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An investigation into South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+
Thesis (MScAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 2026.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2026
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| _version_ | 1867613885941415936 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Schultz, Keagan |
| author2 | Jooste, Andre |
| author_browse | Jooste, Andre Schultz, Keagan |
| author_facet | Jooste, Andre Schultz, Keagan |
| author_sort | Schultz, Keagan |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MScAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/135878 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:43:15.981Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/135878 An investigation into South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+ Schultz, Keagan Jooste, Andre Stellian, Remi Stellenbosch University. Faculty of AgriSciences. Dept. of Agricultural Economics. Thesis (MScAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. Schultz, K. 2026. An investigation into South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/55fa419a-f7df-48c2-9e4f-2f183ae752d3 South Africa’s agricultural sector matters for job creation, food security, and foreign earnings, but it operates with little irrigated land and uneven infrastructure. Production is specialised by region and this specialisation underpins strong exports in citrus, grapes, wine, maize, apples, pears, and wool, even as energy, roads, and logistics remain constraints. South Africa also sits in a dense web of trade arrangements, and BRICS has expanded to BRICS+, creating a larger set of partner markets and a useful forum for economic cooperation. This study translates the idea of “specialise where you are relatively strong” into practical choices for South Africa in BRICS+: which products to promote in trade negotiations, which BRICS+ partners to target, where to seek sanitary or tariff facilitation, and where limited market-opening is acceptable. To do this, the study builds a product–year–country dataset for 2001–2023 and empirically tests 27 RCA indexes. It then chooses one index to investigate South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+. All 27 RCA indexes are empirically assessed for three things: stable time behaviour, sensible distribution shape, and consistent product rankings. The RTA index ranks first empirically but lacks key theoretical features. Balancing evidence and theory, the study adopts the RC5 index, which corrects for asymmetry, scales by GDP, and standardises flows over time. With the RC5 index in hand, the study measures comparative advantages and disadvantages in two ways: how often South Africa is ahead of BRICS+ peers (frequency, N1) and how large the positive differences are when it is ahead (cumulative advantage gap). Symmetric measures capture disadvantage (N2 and cumulative disadvantage gap). The “Priority-A” set contains products that are top-50 on both frequency and size of advantage; the “MAA-D” set contains products that are top-50 on both frequency and size of disadvantage. Recency indicators show how much of each signal occurs in the last five years, and export or import shares show economic exposure. The results of the study are clear. Advantages are concentrated in three groups: wine and beverages (notably HS 2204), horticulture (citrus HS 0805, apples and pears HS 0808, grapes HS 0806), and animal fibres/hides (wool HS 5101 and 5105; raw hides HS 4101–4103). These lines score high on both frequency and size of advantage and remain strong through time. The head-to-head outperformance most often appears against Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Russia, and Indonesia. On the downside, persistent weaknesses occur in staples and oils (poultry HS 0207, rice HS 1006, palm oil HS 1511), selected processed foods (pasta HS 1902, confectionery HS 1704), and cotton textiles (HS 5208–5212). Import exposure is high for palm oil and rice, but low for many other weak lines. The study’s recommendations follow from this. Scale what already works: deepen access for wine, core fruits, wool, and hides, focusing on partners where South Africa most often and most strongly outperforms. Use market access alignment selectively: offer market-opening in low-exposure, persistently weak products to secure better access in priority lines, while treating high-exposure staples (palm oil, rice) with caution and support. Because the disadvantages are concentrated, especially against Egypt, and also Saudi Arabia and Iran, targeted bilateral packages are likely to yield the best returns. Masters 2026-04-14T07:48:17Z 2026-04-14T07:48:17Z 2026-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/135878 en Stellenbosch University 117 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Schultz, Keagan An investigation into South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+ |
| title | An investigation into South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+ |
| title_full | An investigation into South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+ |
| title_fullStr | An investigation into South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+ |
| title_full_unstemmed | An investigation into South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+ |
| title_short | An investigation into South Africa’s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within BRICS+ |
| title_sort | investigation into south africa s agricultural trade opportunities and market access alignment within brics |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/135878 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT schultzkeagan aninvestigationintosouthafricasagriculturaltradeopportunitiesandmarketaccessalignmentwithinbrics AT schultzkeagan investigationintosouthafricasagriculturaltradeopportunitiesandmarketaccessalignmentwithinbrics |