Princess Anne’s address to the Commonwealth Agriculture Conference on 3 November placed South Africa’s agricultural institutions under a friendly but pointed spotlight, as the sister of King Charles used the platform at Century City to frame farming as a matter of sustained public commitment rather than mere commerce.
The Princess Royal, 76, spoke before a packed hall of delegates that included business leader Johann Rupert, local politicians and farming representatives. Her remarks carried institutional weight beyond ceremony. As president of the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth, a body founded in 1957 by her father, Prince Philip, she holds a mandate to promote farming across 21 countries, chiefly through its biennial conference. She succeeded Prince Philip in that role.
Her address, held under the theme “Opportunities of change in a connected world,” emphasised that agriculture remains critical globally because people will continue to need nutrition. “The human race only got this far because it has been fed by the people in agriculture, the producers of our food. That is still true, and it will continue to be true,” she said. She urged delegates to learn from one another, noting that farmers across the Commonwealth face many of the same underlying challenges even where solutions differ by environment.
She also singled out the host province for institutional praise. “The Western Cape, of course, provides a really excellent illustration of how agriculture, research, education, technology, tourism and food production need to work alongside each other, and they do,” she said, adding that South Africa’s “extraordinary climate” and its long-standing influence on agricultural knowledge and production deserve recognition.
Provincial government was visibly engaged in the proceedings. Western Cape MEC for Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism Dr Ivan Meyer told delegates earlier that his department was preparing the province for El Niño and the drought risks associated with it, a reminder that climate preparedness now sits squarely within the mandates of agricultural authorities.
Meanwhile, the conference unfolded under a shadow of trade policy. Just one day before the gathering, United States president Donald Trump announced his intention to terminate South Africa’s eligibility for Agoa, lending a sober tone to opening speakers who called for combining accumulated agricultural knowledge with scientific innovation. Challenges discussed ranged from economic disparity to environmental disruption.
Rupert, whose ventures include L’Ormarins Wine Estate in Franschhoek, used his keynote to catalogue the pressures bearing on farmers, from inclement weather and wars around the globe to taxes levied on the sector’s immovable assets, a burden he contrasted with intellectual property-driven companies. He acknowledged his family’s descent from “boat people,” meaning European settlers, in welcoming the Princess Royal to South Africa.
His remarks also touched on questions of ethics and responsibility in emerging technology, including income disparity and the ethics of artificial intelligence. He stressed “empathy and curiosity” as values he instils in his children and espouses in his business empire, and wished to see more of in humanity at large. “It’s not necessarily true that we are too many people [on earth], but we have developed some very bad habits,” he said. Invoking Professor Brian Cox, the English physicist, he illustrated water scarcity: “Brian explained to me that we don’t have enough water. He said, ‘think of the Earth as an apple and the skin as the water. That shows us how precious water is.’” Cox has posited that every drop of water on Earth, including oceans and lakes, would form a film comparatively thinner than the skin of an apple. Rupert, self-deprecating about his own sector, told delegates: “I really honour the people in this room, because I don’t know how to make money from farming. I’m still trying to figure out how to make money out of wine. It’s a way of life. It’s a beautiful way of life, not a business.”
For her part, the Princess treated technology with pragmatic reserve. While she does not have a personal email address, she said she considers technology a tool for finding solutions in agriculture, though she drew a line at forecasting: “Weather is the bit that nobody can guarantee. And I defy AI [Artificial Intelligence] to come up with an answer.”
By contrast with the ceremonial tone of the conference hall, the visit’s remaining agenda carried practical policy weight. The British High Commission in South Africa noted that Princess Anne would be in Cape Town on 3 and 4 November 2026, during which time she was also expected to visit a stud farm to learn about a new protocol enabling greater trade of horses between South Africa and Britain, and to address digital entrepreneurs living in Cape Town townships. Whether that horse-trade protocol signals a broader deepening of agricultural ties between the two countries remains an open question. Further coverage of the visit is available at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-11-08-princess-anne-praises-sas-agricultural-industry-in-whistle-stop-visit-to-cape/