- South Africa’s maize market started yesterday’s trade session in negative territory and remained under pressure throughout the day as large carryover stock1, favourable weather forecasts for the coming weeks and lower Chicago maize prices continued to underpin the market. However, this was with the exception of yellow maize spot price which gained ground owing to commercial buying interest.
- A larger part of the South African maize belt experienced cool and drier weather conditions this week, with rainfall mainly concentrated towards the eastern sections. Nonetheless, the crop is in good condition in many areas of the country and soil moisture has slightly improved following the recent rainfall.
- Moreover, there is generally improved prospects of a fairly better harvest in the 2017/18 production season, although will be lower than the 2016/17 record harvest. The expected rainfall within the next two weeks will give an additional boost to soil moisture and crop conditions throughout the maize belt.
- While the focus is on the new production season, some farmers continue to deliver old season maize to commercial silos. The total maize deliveries were reported at 9 426 tonnes in the week ending 16 February 2018, down by 14% from the previous week. About 67% of this was yellow maize, with 33% being white maize. Overall, South Africa’s 2017/18 marketing year’s total maize deliveries for “week 1 to 42” currently stand at 15.3 million tonnes. Of this total, 60% is white maize with 40% being yellow maize.
- On the global front – The drier weather conditions in some parts of Brazil could lead to poor yields. Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc. revised its 2017/18 maize production estimate for Brazil down to 86 million tonnes, from 98 million tonnes in the 2016/17 production season. Moreover, this is well below International Grains Council estimate of 90 million tonnes.
See full report: