Game Sales Statistics for South Africa

South Africa is arguably the most important market for the sale of live game in Africa and in the world says Gerhard Damm in his newsletter, African Indaba, published now for the third year. Statistical figures based on the research by Prof. Theuns Eloff of the Potchefstroom Campus of the University of the Northwest. Thank you to Prof Eloff for the permission to publish the statistics below.. A quick analysis of the figures shows a stagnating trend in total heads of game sold and in its monetary value in South African Rand since 2002.

Due to the significant revaluation of the South African Rand against the US-currency (average rates for 2002: n10.52, 2003: 7.57 and 2004: 6.31 – presently below 5.90) the USDollar values have, however, increased correspondingly. Limpopo province again emerged as the most important game market with a share of almost 34% of the 2004 total. KwaZulu- Natal, formerly solidly occupying the second rank with the famous Ezemvelo Game Auction dropped to 4th place in 2004 (share 9.4%) behind North West with 18.2%, Freestate with 12.7% and Mpumalanga with 9.5%.

It is significant, however, that Limpopo’s volume increased from 6802 heads of game sold in 2003 to 9163 in 2004, whilst the monetary results dropped from 39 million Rand in 2003 to 35 million Rand in 2004. In the other provinces significant variations in heads of game sold and values realized were also observed. According to Prof. Eloff a major factor in this development was the marketing of rare and valuable species.