South Africa in general is very cheap, they are also less isolated, a major port in cape town, far less overheads, cheap labour etc etc. Smaller market? Not sure, I met a lot of keen fisho's over there 

 Looks like good value, if you live in SA.

 otherwise you get smashed with a dirty big handling fee.

 Pretty cheap there but over 100 aud shipping to Aus will kill it..

Belly

 Yeah it's much cheaper buying stuff there if you're getting someone to bring it over for you otherwise there's a ridiculous postage fee

At an exchange rate of ZAR 9.90 to one AUD, the prices look very similar to Australian ones.  At South African income levels, they would be expensive to the locals.

Going over for a wedding in a few weeks and stopping in at Bazil Manning store the price of rods and reels is insane, most of the stuff im looking at is half price. (apart from stellas)

Its all relative. The average joker over there would battle with those prices. And its correct, the cost to "handle" the reels from importer to sale would be heaps lower than here.

A classic example was me going to a seafood restuarant, I couldnt help myself as I worked out that an oyster was about 1/3 of the cost here. Here about $20-30 a dozen fresh naturale. Make it $2 each which equates to ZAR 20. Their cost was about ZAR 6 or about 70rand for 12. But that is expensive for the average punter and you see people bying 1-2 at a time for the taste. I pigged out as by comparison its dirt cheap but eventually felt like a snob ordering so many.

By the way this is just my recollection off prices. Beer was also about a third so not only did I eat well but drank to much. For 2 drinks at the Rotto Hotel I could have had a meal for 2, and walked away pretty wasted.