Western Cape Agriculture on Jobs Growth and New Minimum Wage

The number of people employed in the Western Cape's agricultural sector has grown by more than 63% year-on-year.

Alan Winde, Minister of Economic Opportunities, said according to the latest employment figures from Statistics South Africa (QLFS: Quarter 4, 2015), the province's agriculture sector added 83 000 jobs to the economy in 2015. There are now 214 000 people employed in the Western Cape's agricultural sector.

Seventy percent of the new jobs in South Africa's agriculture sector were created in the Western Cape. Our year-on-year jobs growth rate was 63.5%, compared to 16% nationally. These phenomenal figures are testament to growth in the industry. This is in part due to strong support for the sector from government, and to positive sentiment and investment by the private sector.

Through its backward link to the agri-processing sector, agriculture has been identified as a key sector by the province. We have set ourselves the...