You may be surprised at how much food comes from SA. We consume a lot of tinned fruit in this house (and storage) and more than half of the tinned stuff we by is from SA. About 18 months ago i started paying attention to food labels and country of origin and was surprised myself to realize the amount we buy from SA. I am sure it is all fine ,but we avoid FOOD manufactured in China , non food is fine but if we put it in OR on our bodies we do not buy from China. We are not health nuts or anything, we just wanted to track where all our stuff comes from. We live in suburbia(ish) and we also got chooks about the same time to become a little more reliant. Food is one of the most important resources we have and we got a little worried to discover how reliant we WERE on shops and markets. As a side with the chooks we sell eggs to friends and family and whoever else hears about them, and as well as paying for themselves they have bought us 37 ozt of silver in the short time we have had the 6 girls.
Just two examples While South Africa accounts for almost 82 per cent of Woolworths Holding's sales, Australia already represents 16.4 per cent of turnover. http://www.brw.com.au/p/business/david_other_woolworths_meet_jones_FQz05wEsItEjM2VsruQWFL metcash - majority shareholder S.A March 2010, Metcash acquired 50.1% of Mitre 10 July 2010, Metcash announced it would acquire Interfrank Group Holdings Pty Ltd, the owner of the Franklins chain of 85 supermarkets. The transaction was completed in November 2011 with all viable Franklins stores converted to the IGA banner. 2012 Metcash entered into an agreement to acquire a 75.1% stake in Automotive Brands Group (ABG) for $53.8m. ABG is Australia's largest distributor and franchise operator in the automotive parts and aftermarket sector. http://www.metcash.com/about/
I'm not convinced, but I'll have a look into it. I do find it very hard to believe that SA could get remotely close to China and the US for market influence in Australia.
DFAT fact sheet on Australia - South Africa trade and investment: https://dfat.gov.au/trade/resources/Documents/safr.pdf
Australian merchandise trade with South Africa, 2014 : Imports from South Africa - Total Share 0.4% with a rank of 29th. Seems pretty small to me.....
I was talking about use of SA products on a personal household basis. In this house we use a lot of SA products.