The Marketing of Agricultural Products Act, No. 47 of 1996 (MAP Act), provides for the establishment of statutory measures. A “statutory measure” includes a levy contemplated in Section 15 of the MAP Act, the control of exports of agricultural products in terms of Section 16, records and returns in terms of Section 18, and registration in terms of Section 19. Since 1997, statutory measures, namely levies, records and returns, and registration, have been approved by the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and promulgated in the Government Gazette for specific agricultural products and for specific periods of time.

Section 9 of the MAP Act directs that the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) must monitor the application of statutory measures and report thereon to the Minister and shall evaluate and review such measures at least every two years. Since 2001, the NAMC has conducted an annual review of all statutory measures implemented in terms of the MAP Act (the statutory measures implemented are levies, records and returns, and registration).

Recently, the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) finalised its 2022 survey regarding the status of statutory measures implemented in terms of the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act (MAP Act). The 2022 survey was based on the latest audited financial statements of the 20 commodity organisations collecting statutory levies.

The levy administrators’ total funds collected through statutory levies in the 2022 survey amounted to approximately R986.1 million, which is 21.9% higher than the 2021 survey. This increase in total levy income can be attributed to, amongst other things, the higher citrus statutory levies which were implemented in 2021 and the soybean and winter cereals breeding levies approved over the last few years.

The MAP Act stipulates that a statutory levy may not exceed 5% of the price realised for a specific agricultural product at the first point of sale. The maximum of 5% must be based on a guideline price, calculated as the average price at the first point of sale over a period not exceeding three years. For the 2022 survey, the total levy income as a percentage of the value of agricultural products at the first point of sale, is approximately 0.7%.

Table 1: Total Statutory Levy Income – 2022 Survey

The 2022 survey also shows that approximately R896.0 million was spent on industry functions, which represents an increase of 28.3% compared to the 2021 survey. Of the total expenditure, about 47.0% was spent on research, 9.0% on export promotion/market access, and 6.7% on information. About 20.0% (R179.2 million) was spent on transformation projects.

Table 2: Allocation of Levy Expenditure – 2022 Survey

The 2022 survey also highlighted the following, namely –

• Statutory measures, and specifically levies, play an important role in enabling growth in the relevant agricultural industries through effective information management and communication and the collection of funds to finance much-needed functions.
• Regarding the trend in the allocation of statutory funds over the past 10 years, it is evident that functions, such as research, quality control and transformation, are proportionally receiving more in funds, while functions such as information, plant improvement and production development are receiving proportionally less in funds.
• Most of the administrators of statutory measures indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a major effect on their activities.