Agriculture and forestry
Mpumalanga is a summer-rainfall area divided by the escarpment into the Highveld region with cold frosty winters and the Lowveld region with mild winters and a subtropical climate. The escarpment area sometimes
experiences snow on the high ground. Thick mist is common during the hot, humid summers.
Agriculture, as the backbone of the province’s economy, employs 8.1% of its total workforce. An abundance of citrus fruit and many other subtropical fruit – mangoes, avocados, litchis, bananas, papayas, granadillas, guavas – as well as nuts and a variety of vegetables are
produced in the province.
Mbombela is the second-largest citrus-producing area in South Africa and is responsible for one third of the country’s orange exports. The Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Crops is situated in the city. Groblersdal is an important irrigation area, which yields a wide variety of products such as citrus, cotton, tobacco, wheat and vegetables. Carolina-Bethal-Ermelo is mainly a sheep-farming area, but potatoes, sunflowers, maize and peanuts are also grown there.
Industry and manufacturing
Most of the manufacturing production in Mpumalanga occurs in the southern Highveld region; especially in Highveld Ridge, where large petrochemical plants such as Sasol 2 and Sasol 3 are located.
Large-scale manufacturing occurs especially in the northern Highveld area, particularly chrome-alloy and steel manufacturing. In the Lowveld sub region, industries concentrate on manufacturing products from agricultural and raw forestry material. The growth in demand for goods and services for export via Maputo is expected to
stimulate manufacturing in the province.
Mpumalanga is rich in coal reserves with eMalahleni being the biggest coal producer in Africa. South Africa’s major power stations are situated in this province. Kendal power station’s cooling towers are the largest structures of their type in the world. The Kusile Power Station near Delmas is the country’s biggest, contributing a massive 4800 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.
One of the country’s largest paper mills is situated at Ngodwana, close to its timber source. Middelburg, which produces steel and vanadium, is home to Columbus Stainless, South Africa’s only producer of stainless-steel flat products.