Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza says South Africans don’t need to panic about any impending food shortages in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This follows reports of panic buying caused by fears of food shortages in South Africa in recent weeks, due to the conflict which brought global economic uncertainty.
Didiza has met with stakeholders in the food and agricultural industry and farmers associations. They discussed the availability of food safety as part of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team’s assessment of the Ukraine conflict to the local economy.
Didiza has stressed that there’s no need for panic buying.
“As a result of global uncertainties there’s a little bit of price hike on food and there was a panic on some of our citizens that there might be having a scarcity in food types. So we want to assure our citizens that there is enough at a moment that we have as a country, particularly on those staples such as grain, white and yellow maize.
“So I thought it’s important to assure our citizens that we do have enough and therefore there’s no need for panic buying. There’s very little that we import from Ukraine and Russia in terms of oil. So from where we seat we don’t have any anxiety or sense that we need to panic,” says Minister Didiza.
VIDEO: Government evaluates food supply availability as Russia-Ukraine conflict rages on: Thoko Didiza
