April 25, 2008

South Africa to expand wheat area by nearly 20 percent 

South Africa plans to plant wheat on 750,000 hectares this year, up 18.7 percent on 2007's 632,000 hectares as farmers seek to benefit from high wheat prices amid favorable weather conditions, the Crop Estimates Committee first intentions to plant for the winter season report showed Thursday (April 24, 2008).

"It's mainly the favorable weather conditions, but high prices are also part of the reason why farmers expanded the output," said Baldwin Netshifhefhe, principal statistician at the Department of Agriculture's CEC.

Wheat prices have more than doubled to 4,000 rand a tonne (US$523) from just under ZAR1,700/ton in the past year, as global production fail to keep up with demand.

Farmers have also reduced planting areas for crops like barley and rapeseed in favour of wheat.

Barely is expected to be planted on 68,150 hectares, down 7.1 percent on last year's 73,360 hectares, and the area for rapeseed was cut by 0.6 percent to 33,000 hectares from 33,200 hectares in 2007.