South Africa Importing Maize
According to Grain SA, South Africa will soon have to import maize. With huge amounts already earmarked for countries such as Mexico and Korea, there is no clarity on how much of the maize in South African's silos has already been purchased by other countries. We spoke to Jannie de Villiers from Grain SA.
Weekly white maize exports soar
Barrett Schoeman (agricultural economist: Market Environment, Grain SA)
For the week ended 28 October 2011, South Africa exported 101 446 tons of white maize compared to 13 098 tons the previous week. The weekly export figure soared after 93 150 tons of white maize were exported to Mexico. From 1 May 2011, Mexico has imported 701 279 tons of white maize from South Africa.
On the other hand, the exports of yellow maize was lower than market expectations and only 2 136 tons were exported. This compared to 2 791 tons that was exported the previous week.
Until now, 1 046 million tons of white maize and 650 083 tons of yellow maize were exported for the 2011/2012 marketing year (1 May - 30 April). The majority of the white and yellow maize that was exported was deep sea exports to countries such as Mexico, Italy, Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Only 16% of the exports realised thus far was maize intended for African countries.
Of the 273 302 tons of white and yellow maize exported to Africa, 26% was intended for other African countries than the BLNS countries. The BLNS countries have thus far only imported 203 524 tons of maize. Botswana and Lesotho respectively imported 86 019 tons and 77 120 tons.
Based on official sources, Grain SA
projects that approximately 1,24 million tons of white maize and 760 000 tons
of yellow maize will be exported this season. The current high export tempo of
65 263 tons per week, won’t however be maintained for the next 26 weeks. If
the export tempo is maintained it could result in a maize shortage for South Africa
and more maize than expected will have to be imported. During the past 7
weeks, South Africa have
already imported 13 258 tons of white maize from Zambia.
For more on Grain SA go to http://www.grainsa.co.za