ANALYSIS OF SOUTH AFRICA'S AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY COMPETITIVENESS IN SACU

Considering regional integration in Southern Africa, there is no better place than the Southern African Customs (SACU), the world's oldest customs union. There is no better industry to examine than the vital agriculture industry in SACU. Agriculture contributes more than 10% in Lesotho, Namibia, and Eswatini and less in Botswana and South Africa. For this reason, the research work focuses on analyzing South Africa's agriculture industry competitiveness advantage in SACU. Methodologically, the paper applied Porter's Diamond Model to understand the factors that give South Africa's agriculture industry a competitive advantage in the Southern African Customs Union. The author concludes that not all SACU countries are predominantly agriculture-driven economies. South Africa has substantial and diversified manufacturing capacity, but its agriculture industry needs a competitive advantage in the SACU. However, the country is an agricultural products net exporter within the SACU market. In other words, agriculture's relative contribution is overshadowed by the manufacturing and mining industries, thus reducing the chance of being competitive within the SACU market.