Daily Insider: Produce locally, sell globally. And hit the Rand hedges.

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In researching our new weekly Briefing podcast for Premium members (subscribe here), I came across interesting insights in the detail on Tuesday’s trading update from the Rhodes Food Group. The message was not specific to Rhodes, but to an entire SA export sector.

The company reported that revenues for the 11 months to end August had risen 21%, boosted by a 66% jump in export revenues with volumes of canned fruit and purees 22.5% higher this year than last. Those are hefty numbers. The news was appreciated by the investing community, which sent the RFG share price 14% higher last week, reversing a six-month downward trend.

RFG disclosed that demand for its products was helped by a failure of the Greek peach crop. Greece is the world’s biggest exporter of the fruit. Equally relevant, though, is the price competitiveness of Rhodes’ cans on the global market. In the 11 months to end August, the Rand averaged R15.76 against the US Dollar from R14.55 a year before, an 8% advantage.

Nice story, but it gets even better. The Rand’s recent drop has taken it to R17.60 against the Dollar. That adds another 11% to an already juicy export profit margin for Rhodes – and the legion of other exporters. The message for South Africans right now? Produce locally, sell globally. And for investors? Hit those Rand Hedge stocks. Hard.


In case you missed the best of BizNews last week, here it is in the weekend edition of the BizNews Digest


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