The World Health Organization's first step to healthy eating is: "Eat a nutritious diet based on a variety of foods originating mainly from plants, rather than animals".

The South African Crop Estimates Committee has revised down further its estimate for the country’s 2019/20 wheat harvest to 1.5 million tonnes. This is 20% lower than the previous season.

January is traditionally a quiet month in the onion market. Dutch onion traders are currently in the transition between export seasons, now that Senegal has closed its market to imported onions in order to protect its own crops.

The reach of European empires and of Indian Ocean trade networks drew southern Africa into the global politics of opium around the turn of the twentieth century.

 While South Africa’s 2019/20 summer crop production season started on a negative footing with delayed rainfall across the country, farmers managed to plant the area they intended.

Today, South Africa’s Crop Estimates Committee will release its preliminary planting estimates for 2019/20 summer crops. This is important data as it will give an idea of the potential size of major grains harvest, such as maize.