Johannesburg - South African yellow-corn futures reached a two-month low as they followed prices in the US that slid yesterday.
Yellow corn for delivery in September fell 2.1 percent to 2,167 rand ($225) a metric ton, the contract’s lowest since May 21, by the noon close on the South African Futures Exchange in Johannesburg.
The white variety for delivery in December lost 1.7 percent to 2,320 rand a ton.
Corn futures slumped to a 33-month low yesterday on the Chicago Board of Trade as forecasts for cool, wet weather improved prospects for a crop expected to be a record in the US, the world’s biggest grower of the grain.
“Corn was down in the US,” Brink van Wyk, a trader at BVG (Pty) Ltd., said by phone from Pretoria. “We are following the parity prices.”
South Africa exported 84,537 tons of yellow corn to Japan in the week to July 12, the Pretoria-based South African Grain Information Service said on its website. If more of the yellow variety is shipped, farmers may substitute white corn for use as animal feed, according to growers’ association Grain SA.
South Africa is the continent’s largest corn producer. Meal made from white corn is one of the country’s staple foods and yellow corn is mainly used as animal feed.
Wheat for delivery in December fell 1.4 percent to 3,303 rand a ton in Johannesburg. - Bloomberg News