South African Lucerne exports competitiveness and demand analysis with a special focus on China

Introduction: South Africa is a member state of the “BRICS” bloc (BRICS2017.org, 2017) and the G20 group of the 20 nations/economic blocs, which between them account for the majority of the world’s trade and economic activity. It faces many developmental challenges which are mirrored in its higher education sector. In this article, the authors seek to provide an overview of the challenges that South African higher education faces in the achievement of the developmental goals of the country. The focus of this paper is a case study in WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) to improve context-specific responses that trains pharmacists on knowledge and skills. Methods: The study was performed as a combination of calculations and a literature review to obtain the background or current status of the higher education sector and developmental planning in South Africa. For this, data were extracted from the Statistics South Africa reports, relevant professional articles on South African higher education sector and results of postgraduate research. Workshop results which were obtained as a collaboration between a public and a private higher education institution and results of postgraduate research were used as the paradigm for transformation and decolonisation of the curriculum for a professional degree in South Africa. Results and discussion: Challenges exist in the South African tertiary education sector and the graduation rate currently stands at 65.1% of the target set by the National Development Plan. Around 58.1% of all students do not complete their university/post-secondary education, which could provide a partial explanation for the skills shortage in South Africa. Decolonisation and transformation of the tertiary education curriculum are major topics in the discourse on higher education in South Africa. The authors propose that one way to achieve this would be inclusion of research results and group activities in the area of water, sanitation and hygiene as a topic for possible and partial transformation of the Bachelor of Pharmacy curriculum. Conclusions: The current article summarises some of topics and challenges that drive the current discourse, developmental and curriculum debate in higher education in South Africa. Student access and through put at tertiary institutions need to be improved and the curriculum needs to be transformed.

Background: Indonesia is a major exporter of frozen eels to China. China consistently absorbed more than 80% of Indonesia's eel exports. Indonesian exports have been declining in recent years, whereas global demand, including China, is expected to grow. This may lead to competition among the exporting countries in the Chinese market.Purpose: This study aims to identify the structure of the frozen eel export market in China, the factors affecting the demand share, and to analyze the competition between Indonesia's frozen eel and other exporting countries in the Chinese market. Design/methodology/approach: The Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and Concentration Ratio (CR4 and CR8), and an Almost Ideal Demand System model. The data used were Secondary data from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, and India from to 2012-2023. Findings/Results: The analysis shows that the export market structure of frozen eels in China is oligopolistic. Factors affecting the demand for Indonesia’s frozen eel in China are its own price, the price of frozen eel in the rest of the world, the exchange rate, and China’s GDP. Pakistan and Thailand have competed with Indonesia. Indonesian frozen eels are classified as normal goods, but are inelastic. Indonesia is the second-most benefited country in terms of China’s increase in import expenditure.Conclusion: Indonesia should leverage its competitive advantage in determining the pricing of frozen eels in the Chinese market and expand its market share in the global market. Furthermore, Indonesia can collaborate with Malaysia and India to capitalize on complementary market conditions. Originality/value (state of the art): This is the first study of its kind to examine the Indonesian Eel market structure and competitiveness in the Chinese market. It is also the first to integrate market structure theory with the AIDS model. Keywords: almost ideal demand system (AIDS) model, eels, export, Chinese market, international trade

China is the largest importer of seaweed globally, and Indonesia is one of the countries that exports seaweed to China. Other exporting countries such as Chile and Peru also supply seaweed to China. This study aims to analyze the competitiveness of Indonesian seaweed (HS 121229) in comparison to seaweed from other exporting countries and to investigate the demand for Indonesian seaweed and other seaweed-exporting countries in the Chinese market. The study utilized export data from exporting countries that supplied China's seaweed requirements between 2012 and 2021. Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) and Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that Indonesian seaweed (HS 121229) has a comparative advantage in the Chinese market. However, Indonesian seaweed's comparative advantage is still lower than its competitors. The demand for Indonesian seaweed in the Chinese market is inelastic. Therefore, to increase Indonesian seaweed's export income, exports should be increased rather than lowering prices. To reinforce Indonesia's position in the Chinese seaweed market, Indonesia should collaborate with other exporting countries that complement Indonesia's efforts, such as Chile.

Purpose – The expected growth of China's cotton imports along with Egypt's quest for penetrating new cotton importing markets have together attracted the authors to investigate the competitiveness and the demand for Egyptian cotton in the Chinese market in order to capture the emerging opportunities that Egypt could gain from such a growing market. The paper aims to discuss these issues Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs Balassa's index of revealed comparative advantage and Vollrath's indices of revealed competitive advantage in order to measure the competitiveness of Egyptian cotton exports. An Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) approach was then used to estimate demand parameters for Chinese cotton imports from Egypt and major supply sources during the period 1992-2011. Findings – Results show that Egypt has experienced dramatic declines in its cotton comparative advantage over the analyzed period. The estimation results of the AIDS model indicate that Egypt's market share is positively affected by both own and US export prices, but negatively influenced by export prices of other competitors in the Chinese market. Results also indicate that Egyptian cotton is substitutable for cotton imports from all other regions, especially for US cotton. Moreover, additional Chinese expenditure on cotton imports would favor other suppliers. Finally, demand for Egyptian cotton was found to be more sensitive to price changes and there is a greater tendency for China to switch to Egyptian cotton than the other way around should relative prices change. Originality/value – This paper is original and novel in that; despite numerous studies have been done on China's demand for cotton and the several studies have been carried out on export and marketing of Egypt's cotton, the issue of cotton trade between Egypt and China has rarely been empirically examined. Furthermore, our results update important parameter estimates, particularly import demand elasticities of cotton. For Egypt, the study provides useful policy implications that could help policy makers to improve informed decision making with regard topromoting cotton exports to the Chinese market. For China, the study helps understanding the interrelationship between the Chinese cotton market and other emerging exporting markets, while focusing on the Egyptian market.

In the present paper, an investigation into Thailand’s energy demand is performed to determine if: (1) a linear or nonlinear Engel curve better explains the relationship between income and energy consumption, and (2) systems with pre-commitments better model energy consumptions. Four demand systems are estimated: an almost ideal demand system (AIDS), the quadratic almost ideal demand system (QAIDS), generalized almost ideal demand system (GAIDS), and the generalized quadratic almost ideal demand system (GQAIDS). Elasticities are calculated for policy implications. The empirical results suggest that models considering pre-commitments and nonlinear Engel curves may be slightly more appropriate for Thailand’s energy system, from both statistic and economic standpoints. Statistical inferences appear to favor the GQAIDS model based on the encompassing results. Economic reasonability also appears to favor the GQAIDS model, in particular, petroleum products, as it provides results consistent with the notions of precommitments and fuel substitutability found in previous studies. Most of the previous studies in various forms have shown that the demand for petroleum products is relatively inelastic to price in Thailand. The current study, however, finds that own-price elasticities of uncompensated demand for petroleum products are almost unitary, which is relatively more elastic than most of the previous studies. As such, further studies are required and the price-based policy on petroleum products targeting the reduction in petroleum product dependence must be implemented with caution.

The implementation of the Marine Living Resources Act 18 of 1998 which governs fisheries management in South Africa is guided by a series of objectives. Chief amongst these are the need to ensure resource sustainability, promote economic growth and achieve equity in the fishing industry. Striking a balance among these competing imperatives is a necessary but also monumental task, one which South Africa has arguably failed to achieve to date. In particular, as far the equity objective is concerned, a group of fishers, including both subsistence and artisanal fishers, have continued to be marginalised and overlooked in the fishing rights allocation process. The Policy for the Small-Scale Fisheries Sector in South Africa aims to provide recognition and redress to this sector of the fishing industry. It seeks to achieve this objective by adopting a community-based, co-management approach. The Policy accordingly envisages that fishing rights will be allocated to small-scale fishing communities and that these communities will become involved in managing fisheries together with government. This contribution reviews and critically analyses the scope of application of the Small-Scale Policy and the management approach adopted by the Policy, with a view to assessing its potential to achieve the objective of providing redress to the formerly marginalised groups of fishers. This analysis takes place against the backdrop of the significant resource constraints in the fisheries arena and the country’s vision for its future economic development as described in the National Development Plan.

Lucerne hay is undoubtedly one of the most important forage crops used in animal nutrition globally. This article sheds light on the intricacies of the South African lucerne hay sector by offering an industry overview. Lucerne hay quality is categorised into different grades: Supreme, Prime, Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3, each exhibiting its distinct characteristics and attributes based on the nutritional value of dairy cattle. The producer price of lucerne hay is driven by supply and demand in the market. These fluctuations reflect the attractiveness of new producers entering or producers exiting the industry, indicating the sensitivity of market dynamics to external factors like weather and international demand. On average, South Africa exports 160 to 240 thousand tons annually, mainly to neighbouring countries and the Middle East. Over the last several years, the Chinese markets imported a growing volume of South African-produced lucerne hay. Weather conditions are one of the leading drivers of changes in the availability, quantity, and quality of lucerne hay in South Africa, impacting the producer price of lucerne hay in the local market. This article aims to provide insight into the dynamics of the South African lucerne hay industry. Additional research is required to understand the interactions of weather conditions (temperature variations, rainfall and occurrence of rainfall) on lucerne hay production and quality. Understanding international demand for South African lucerne hay will provide insight into the competitiveness of South African lucerne hay in the international market.

Developing a framework for export competitiveness in the agrifood sector: the case of the Australian beef industry

South Africa in its quest for socio-economic improvement still faces the problem of persistent high rate of unemployment. Unemployment in South Africa is very intricate and therefore makes it a complex challenge to tackle for policy makers. Differing rates of unemployment do exist in different sectors of the economy. Some sectors are facing employment growth while others are declining. This study examines the possible major determinants of labour demand (employment) in the Textiles, clothing and footwear manufacturing sector in South Africa. The study is based on quarterly time series data from 1990 to 2011. The Johansen (1991) model is used to examine these trends. The model is an error correction model imposed upon a vector autoregressive model. The results obtained showed that wages and imports both have negative relationships with the demand for workers. Based on these two important results, the study recommended the introduction of a sector-based wage subsidy. The wage structure in South Africa is a perpetually problematic factor of the labour market and therefore is also a significant determinant in the viability of business and investment. Secondly, the import structure on textiles, clothing and footwear is not clearly and thoroughly defined. A complete restructuring of import tariffs on the entire sector is also herein suggested. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n14p227

The U.S. is one of the world’s major producers and importers of nuts, with 9% average increase in imports in the last decade (1996-2016). Given that nuts account for, on average, 18% of the U.S. total imports of fruits, it is important to empirically analyze and better understand the U.S. demand for nuts. This study estimates import elasticities of demand using an Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) and quarterly data reported by the USCIS for the period of 1996-2016. The parameter estimates of the AIDS model were employed to estimate the elasticities of demand for coconuts, brazil nuts, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, chestnuts, and pistachios. Other nuts as pecans and peanuts are included in the category “other”. Additional adjustments were made to the empirical model in order to account for seasonality and trend, as well as to provide necessary remedies for serial correlation and endogeneity. Our results revealed that all Marshallian own-price elasticities had the expected negative signs and in absolute terms were greater than one indicating that the U.S. demand for these nuts was price-elastic for the period analyzed. The Hicksian cross-price elasticities indicated both complementary relationships and substitutability between the selected nut types.

This paper investigates the pattern of inbound tourists' consumption in South Africa, examining four main intercontinental markets and five different tourism goods. The empirical investigation develops an almost ideal demand system (AIDS) model and it extends recent research by allowing tourists to base their spending decision on the real effective price differences between South Africa and their home country. The results show that tourist spending in South Africa is a luxury good, and tourists react normally to a change in the relative price of goods. The cross‐price elasticities suggest that the preferences of different markets influence their view of substitutability and complementary effects between various products in South Africa.

ABSTRACTThe Rotterdam and the almost ideal demand systems (AIDS) are often used to model consumer demand system. The present study determined which model performed better in recovering the true elasticities of consumer demand for red meat and fish. For the linearised AIDS model, Stone, Paasche, Laspeyres, and Turnquist price indexes were used. This study also compared the results of the linearised AIDS and the full nonlinear AIDS (NLAIDS) models. According to Lutkepohl, normality test for joint residuals, the linearised AIDS model that used Turnquist price index, was the best system and, based on the Akaike criteria, the linear approximate (LA) AIDS outperformed NLAIDS. The results of the non-nested test for LAAIDS versus Rotterdam showed that LAAIDS is more appropriate for red meat and fish demand in Iran. Price elasticity for fish and red meat showed that they are elastic. Cross elasticity from LAAIDS and NLAIDS showed that fish and red meat are substitutes. Allen-Uzawa elasticity results indicate that the two goods are strong substitutes. Income elasticity indicated that red meat and fish are considered to be luxury goods.

In this review article, the context of young children in South Africa in 2012 is described and the main challenges affecting children and the early childhood development sector (ECD) in South Africa are investigated. A situation analysis of ECD in South Africa was undertaken using South African government ECD policy and programme implementation reports. There has been progress since 1994, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The number of children in Grade R has trebled since 2001, government education and social development budgets have increased substantially and 58% of children at ECD centres nationally are now subsidised. More children are in provision and in better quality provision than before. However, much still remains to be done before we can say with confidence that the needs of our youngest children are being met. This study identifies infrastructure, nutrition, ECD programmes, teacher training, institutional capacity and funding as the major gaps in ECD provision.

Due to the inability of economic theory to choose ex ante between the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) and the Rotterdam model, a non-nested test was used. The results of the non-nested test points to the Linearized-AIDS model applied to 31 years of meat consumption data in South Africa. When comparing the estimated demand relations of the two models, the LA/AIDS model also proved to be a better fit for South African meat demand.

Although Africa is the most under-supplied region of the world for electricity, its economies are utterly dependent on it. There are enormous inequalities in electricity access, with industry receiving abundant supplies of cheap power while more than 80 per cent of the continent's population remain off the power grid. Africa is not unique in this respect, but levels of inequality are particularly pronounced here due to the inherent unevenness of 'electric capitalism' on the continent. This book provides an innovative theoretical framework for understanding electricity and capitalism in Africa, followed by a series of case studies that examine different aspects of electricity supply and consumption. The chapters focus primarily on South Africa due to its dominance in the electricity market, but there are important lessons to be learned for the continent as a whole, not least because of the aggressive expansion of South African capital into other parts of Africa to develop and control electricity. Africa is experiencing a renewed scramble for its electricity resources, conjuring up images of a recolonisation of the continent along the power grid. Written by leading academics and activists, Electric Capitalism offers a cutting-edge, yet accessible, overview of one of the most important developments in Africa today - with direct implications for health, gender equity, environmental sustainability and socio-economic justice. From nuclear power through prepaid electricity meters to the massive dam projects taking place in central Africa, an understanding of electricity reforms on the continent helps shape our insights into development debates in Africa in particular and the expansion of neoliberal capitalism more generally.