June 24, 2010

Bumper harvest boosts South Africa closing corn stocks to nearly 35% compared with the previous season, while corn futures edged lower tracking global markets.

"It's all because we have a lot of supply and the big harvest is coming," a trader said of the closing stocks.

South Africa is on track to harvest its largest corn crop in nearly three decades, according to a 2009/10 season traders' production poll, which showed the country will harvest 13.52 million tonnes of the grain.

The government's Crop Estimates Committee has been scheduled to release its latest production figures on Thursday (June 24).

The traders said they expected a lot of corn to be delivered to South African silos this season although wet weather at the end of the 2009/10 season could weigh on quality.

"The crop will be quite big but the only problem is that the grades will be affected by the heavy rains, which continued pouring at the end of the season (in April)," a trader said.

South Africa recorded 2.131 million tonnes of closing corn stocks for the 2009/10 season, from 1.581 million tonnes in the previous season. The stocks included 1.362 million tonnes of white corn and 769,000 tonnes of yellow, according to the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS).