No, South Africa hasn't barred white-owned farms from agricultural export permits - old claims still wrong
IN SHORT: Old claims from 2023 have resurfaced in January 2025, repeating news reports that the South African government had imposed new race-based regulations on exports that would devastate the agricultural sector. But the claims were debunked by government and industry experts back in 2023 and are not true now.
The sensational claim that "white-owned farms not allowed to export to the European Union" was initially popular on X (then Twitter) in 2023, with some posts receiving hundreds of thousands of views.
The claim resurfaced on Facebook in January 2025, generating a fresh wave of engagement and outrage in the comments sections.
But what new regulations do these posts refer to? Let's break it down.
Trade agreements and export permits
The initial claims, replicated in 2025 versions, appear to have been based on an article published in news outlet City Press in November 2023. It began: "Farms that are 'too white' will no longer be allowed to export to the UK and EU."
The article asserted that the government had "quietly published new rules" for farmers obtaining permits for exporting various agricultural products.
These regulations, which the posts call "anti-white", relate to the broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) programme. This programme aims to redress apartheid inequalities by increasing black South Africans' participation in the economy.
South Africa signed an economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) in 2016, and later an EPA with the UK, following the UK's exit from the EU. Under these EPAs, South Africa's agriculture department issues requirements for export permits every year in the tariff rate quota category ("partially free" exports, meaning lower import duty rates). One of these requirements concerns the B-BBEE status of the permit applicant.
The social media posts and the 2023 article referred to these "new" requirements, claiming that compliance with B-BBEE status had been made a primary factor in obtaining a permit, which would exclude many export farmers.
The article explained that entities with an annual turnover of under R10 million (approximately US$546,000) were exempt, but according to the posts, this would not apply to the "majority of agricultural exporters".
The article said businesses with a turnover of between R10 and R50 million ($546,000 and $2.7 million) that had less than 51% black ownership would need to obtain B-BBEE verification and comply with sector-specific regulations. Large enterprises (over R50 million) also had to obtain B-BBEE verification.
The posts reiterated another of the article's claims and described the implications of the new rules for the sector: "South African agricultural exports were valued at R240 billion (nearly US$13 billion) last year. 20% of these exports went to the EU."
The article said this would have a devastating impact on the agricultural sector, leading to job losses and investor insecurity.
Clarification from industry experts and government
The social media posts and the article got a few facts wrong. This was explained by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development in a November 2023 media statement following the news.
The department clarified that the requirements were not new and that the agreement with the EU had been in place since 2016. While requirements are posted annually, the 2023 requirements "mirror the previous year's requirements".
The statement also said "there is no threshold or level that an applicant must reach to be awarded a permit - the BBBEE status of the applicant is but one factor that must be considered in conjunction with all other factors".
The department clarified that "the allocation of these quotas take into account the market share of the applicants, the quota applied for, the total available quota, the number of applicants and the BBBEE status of the applicant".
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Finally, it explained that these regulations only applied to specific goods, not all exports falling under the EPAs. For context, it said that "about 96.2% of South Africa's exported agricultural products are duty-free", and about 2.5% enjoy "partially free" access to the UK and EU, and are offered tariff rate quotas.
Industry experts also weighed in on the issue in articles published in by News24 and the Daily Maverick. Hortgro, the South African deciduous fruit growers' organisation, echoed the department's points that "the permit applications relate to a very short list of products".
Hortgro's executive director Anton Rabe said the article's claims were "sensationalistic, factually wrong and out of context, and in my view irresponsible". Others agreed, including an agricultural economist and the chief executive of South Africa Wine, who reiterated the same points.
