The paper assesses the factors influencing South Africa’s agricultural
export growth to its cardinal destinations between 2001 and 2014. A gravity
model was used to present investigation of trade flows that has been
validated as a suitable tool in determining export growth. The findings
indicate that an improvement in South Africa’s and importer’s GDP causes
an increase in agricultural exports. Distance and political stability have been
shown to have no influence on the growth of agricultural exports to its
trading partners. The importer’s population and the export capacity showed a
positive relationship on the growth of South Africa’s agricultural exports to
its trading partners. Trading agreements, which include AGOA and the
TDCA with the EU, show a positive impact on increase in export
performance. Therefore, the results suggest that South Africa should focus
on countries with a growing population and GDP to improve agricultural
export growth and market diversification.