It is important for a country like South Africa to push for geographic diversification of trade, especially in light of intensifying geoeconomic tensions and growing protectionism in traditional markets.

This past week, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was mentioned as one of the countries that are set to join BRICS in January 2024. This is a major development and one that offers another avenue for diversifying the geographic destinations of South Africa's agricultural exports.

There is no doubt that South Africa's agriculture stands to benefit enormously from close cooperation with Saudi Arabia. As chair of the 15th BRICS Summit, South Africa championed the need to deepen trade and investments among the BRICS countries, a point that other members overwhelmingly supported.

The agribusiness working group of the BRICS Business Council, in particular, raised the trade aspect and the need to resolve non-tariff barriers that would distort agricultural trade among BRICS countries.

Initially, South African agribusinesses had their eyes on China and India as countries with reasonably higher tariffs on some agricultural products and a range of non-tariff barriers. With the inclusion of Saudi Arabia in BRICS, South Africa would now look at three significant markets to broaden agricultural exports.

It is important for a country like South Africa to push for geographic diversification of trade, especially in light of intensifying geoeconomic tensions and growing protectionism in traditional...