Our primary concern, which ought also to be that of the Department of Agriculture, is to ensure the sustainability of agricultural production. If a farming enterprise is viable and if, over the years, due to a solid economic performance, it can sustain food production, it may well be appropriate to start thinking about processing. However, moneys earmarked for developing agricultural production should not be used for developing processing infrastructure. To my mind, they are two different fields of endeavour. Agricultural production should take precedence over other areas of activity. If this is not clearly set out, industry, given the profits it stands to make by controlling commodity prices, might at times take advantage of the situation.
Statistics on the percentage of net income and income that farm enterprises get from market prices is in perpetual decline. We therefore get the impression that industry is not living up to its responsibilities either. If farm businesses want to be competitive and succeed on the export market, processing is another aspect we have to keep in mind.