The National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) established a Wheat Section 7 Committee on 28 April 2026, guided by Section 7 of the Marketing of Agricultural Products (MAP) Act No. 47 of 1996, as amended by Act No. 59 of 1997 and Act No. 52 of 2001.
Primary purpose of the committee
The primary purpose of a Section 7 committee is to act as a structured platform for investigating critical industry bottlenecks, assessing trade policies, and advising both the NAMC and the Minister of Agriculture on specific crises or developmental challenges within a given agricultural commodity value chain. The wheat industry of South Africa is in distress.
Participants of the committee range from producers, millers, traders, and players in the storage industry to researchers and government. The committee was tasked to address the burning issues within the industry, and to give a workable, practical plan to the minister by the end of November 2026.
Burning issues
- Fair compensation for the higher quality wheat produced by South African producers
- GMO regulations, including NBTs
- The wheat import tariff not providing sufficient protection for the local industry
- Wheat location differential
- Transformation within the industry
- Profit sharing throughout the value chain
During its inaugural meeting on 6 May, the committee established five workstreams. The workstreams were tasked to address specific issues within the industry and identified their focus areas as follows:
- Workstream 1: trade policy and price mechanisms
- Workstream 2: production, storage, logistics, and value chain
- Workstream 3: transformation and inclusivity in the value chain
- Workstream 4: food security, biosafety, and innovation
- Workstream 5: cross-cutting matters
