This article discusses the competitive performance of the Namibian date industry from 2001 to 2013 in a highly competitive global environment. Competitiveness is viewed as the ability of an industry to sustain trade against the competition in the global market. The economic sustainability of the Namibian date fruit industry is found to be dependent on its trading performance with more than 90% of the production being exported. In this study, the conventional �agribusiness competitive analysis� framework (refer to Ismea, 1999; Esterhuizen, 2006; Van Rooyen et al., 2011, 2012; Jafta, 2014 and Boonzaaier, 2015) is expanded to: measure and consider the validity of the questions posed to industry executives; to contain information on the current impacts vs. long-term relevance of the various factors influencing the competitive performance; as well as to consider consensus vs. variations in opinions and similarities and differences within the date industry value chain.
The relative trade advantage (RTA) method, extended by Volrath (1991) from the original Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) model (Balassa, 1965; 1989), was firstly used to empirically measure competitive performance. The opinions of the Namibian date executives through the Date Executive Surveys (DES, 2015) are then used to identify and discuss the competitiveness trends and to qualitatively analyse factors influencing the competitive performance of this industry. The Porter Diamond is applied to derive the industry determinants of competitive performance. The factors identified were grouped into the six Porter diamond determinants, statistically analysed and discussed to account for value chain differences and consensus vs conflict views. Based on the analysis, industry-level strategic actions are proposed to enhance competitive performance.
Key Words: Competitive Performance, Namibian Date Industry, Five-Step Analytical Framework, Relative Trade Advantage (RTA) and Porter Diamond
