Johannesburg - South African white-corn futures gained to the highest in more than three months on speculation that there may be a shortage of the grain.
White corn for delivery in July, the most-active contract, rose 0.5 percent to 2,346 rand ($257) a metric ton, the highest since December 3, by the close on the South African Futures Exchange in Johannesburg.
The yellow variety declined 0.6 percent to 2,264 rand a ton.
White-corn stocks fell to 16 percent to 2.2 million tons in January from a month earlier, the South African Grain Information Service said on February 22.
A lack of rain in some of the nation’s main growing regions will probably result in lower- than-average yields, analysts and traders at BVG, Senwes, and Farmwise Grains have said this month.
“There is a potential shortage for white corn,” Brink van Wyk, a trader at BVG, said by phone from Pretoria today.
South Africa is the continent’s biggest producer of corn.
White corn is a staple food, while the yellow variety is mainly used as animal feed.
The country may reap 6.75 million tons of white corn this season, 0.1 percent more than a year earlier, the Crop Estimates Committee said on February 26.
Wheat for May delivery increased 0.1 percent to 3,409 rand a ton. - Bloomberg News