Johannesburg - South African corn fell after the price on the Chicago Board of Trade, the global benchmark, dropped 1.9 percent on May 10 as a US Department of Agriculture report found inventories will double as farms recover from the 2012 drought.
White corn for delivery in July, the most active contract, fell 1 percent to 2,121.20 rand ($232.57) a metric ton by the midday close on the South African Futures Exchange.
The yellow variety for delivery in the same month dropped 1.1 percent to 2,103 rand a ton.
The US harvest this year will surge 31 percent from 2012 to 14.14 billion bushels (359.2 million tons), the US Department of Agriculture said in a report.
Reserves on Aug. 31, 2014, will more than double from a year earlier to 2.004 billion bushels, the USDA said.
“Prices in the US came down after the USDA report on Friday,” Brink van Wyk, a trader at BVG (Pty) Ltd., said by phone from Pretoria today. “They are estimating a record crop and surplus stocks.”
Corn futures for July delivery slumped 1.9 percent to close at $6.3625 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on May 10.
The US is the world’s biggest producer of the grain.
South Africa is the continent’s biggest producer of corn.
The white grain is a staple food in the country while the yellow variety is mainly used as animal feed.
Wheat for delivery in July fell 0.3 percent to 3,477 rand a ton. - Bloomberg News