Johannesburg - South Africa’s rising yellow corn exports could see the grain being substituted with the white variety for animal feed, according to Jannie de Villiers, chief executive officer of Grain SA, a grower’s association.
“If we go on at this tempo, then we will go into a deficit situation,” De Villiers said in Johannesburg yesterday.
South Africa exported 77,586 metric tons of yellow corn to Japan in the week to July 5, the Pretoria-based South African Grain Information Service said in statement on its website.
That’s the biggest shipment in a week since at least April 28, 2012, when Sagis started providing weekly historical data.
South Africa, the continent’s largest corn producer, may run out of the yellow variety, which it uses mainly as animal feed, if exports advance further, raising the price of the white variety that is a staple food, a growers’ organization and traders said last week.
“Before we can talk about a crisis with the yellow, the white will go into the feed stream first,” De Villiers said.
In the 10 weeks since the start of the season on April 27, South Africa exported 458,453 tons of yellow corn, exceeding the amount shipped for the entire previous season, according to Sagis.
Japan has been the biggest buyer of South African corn since the season started, purchasing 51 percent of the 609,681 tons of the yellow and white varieties shipped in the period.
“We don’t know how much Japan is taking, but prices will go up if we continue at this tempo,” De Villiers said.
Futures Exchange
White corn for delivery in December, the most active contract, increased 0.8 percent to 2,333 rand ($235) a metric ton, by the midday close on the South African Futures Exchange in Johannesburg.
The yellow variety for delivery in September gained 0.3 percent to 2,236 rand a ton.
The Crop Estimates Committee cut its forecast for corn output by 0.6 percent to 11.38 million tons in a June 25 report.
South Africa produced 11.8 million tons last year and 12.8 million tons in 2010, the biggest harvest since 1982.
The country will probably consume 4.54 million tons of yellow corn and could supply 5.74 million tons in the marketing year through April, the Grain and Oilseeds Supply and Demand Estimates Committee said in a report released on June 28. - Reuters