` MEDIA RELEASE DATE: 24 MAY 2017 MINISTER DAVIES ANNOUNCES R1BN AGRO-PROCESSING INCENTIVE The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) has established the Agro-Processing Support Scheme (APSS) aimed at stimulating investment in the agro-processing sector. Minister Davies made the announcement in Parliament yesterday where he was presenting the department’s Budget Vote. “The agro-processing sector is an important labour-intensive sector prioritised in the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP). Given the importance of the sector for jobs and enterprise development, I am pleased to announce that we have set aside R1 billion to fund a sector-specific incentive for the agro- processing sector in this financial year. The incentive will support both brown and greenfield investments, encourage investment in up– and downstream support services, and for the expansion of infrastructure to be used by farmers and agro- processors,” said Minister Davies.
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MEDIA RELEASE
DATE: 24 MAY 2017
MINISTER DAVIES ANNOUNCES R1BN AGRO-PROCESSING INCENTIVE
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says the Department of Trade and
Industry (the dti) has established the Agro-Processing Support Scheme (APSS) aimed
at stimulating investment in the agro-processing sector. Minister Davies made the
announcement in Parliament yesterday where he was presenting the department’s
Budget Vote.
“The agro-processing sector is an important labour-intensive sector prioritised in the
Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP). Given the importance of the sector for jobs and
enterprise development, I am pleased to announce that we have set aside R1 billion to
fund a sector-specific incentive for the agro-processing sector in this financial year. The
incentive will support both brown and greenfield investments, encourage investment in
up– and downstream support services, and for the expansion of infrastructure to be used
by farmers and agro-processors,” said Minister Davies.
He expressed confidence that the agro-processing incentive would make a positive
difference by creating jobs and supporting smallholder farmers, amongst others. The
objective of the scheme is to increase capacity, create employment, competitiveness
and enhance transformation. It is a cost-sharing grant to a maximum of R20 million.
“Last year we concluded the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union
with the aim of increasing market access for our agricultural produce such as seafood,
wine, canned fruit and sugar. Also, our partnership with the BRICS is bearing fruit as we
saw our export of apples to China growing by 70%,” said Minister Davies.
Agro-processing is the largest single subsector in manufacturing and has shown
relatively rapid growth in sales and employment over the past 15 years. It is a major
source of exports, especially fruit juice, as well as covering key wage goods and some
industrial inputs. It supports important areas of job creation and self-employment both
upstream, in agriculture and downstream, notably in retail and food services.
