August 8, 2012
As drought threatens the harvest in top exporter US and makes countries such as Mexico, the second biggest importer of the grain, South Africa exported the whitest corn last week for 2012.
The nation, Africa's biggest producer of corn, exported 92,856 tonnes of the white variety, used as staple food, in the week through August 3, the most since the week through December 30, according to the South African Grain Information Service. That included 87,300 tonnes shipped to Mexico.
The worst drought in the US since 1988 may have cut corn production to 10.79 billion bushels, 17% less than the USDA's July forecast of 12.97 billion, according to St. Louis, Missouri-based Doane Advisory Services Co. In South Africa, shipments of yellow and white corn rose 18% from a year earlier to 2.44 million tonnes in the season ended April 27, the largest amount shipped in at least nine years, it said on May 2.
The African nation exported 1.16 million tonnes of white corn to Mexico in the season ended April 27, making it the biggest buyer of the country's grain, according to Sagis.
"The exports we see now were previously organised and they are mainly due to the fact that the crop is uncertain in the US where Mexico imports a lot of corn from," Paul du Plessis, a trader at Brisen Commodities (Pty) Ltd., said by phone from Pretoria. "We will be seeing a lot of these exports of white corn to Mexico as they look to us as an alternative to the US"
South Africa didn't import any white or yellow corn in the week, the Pretoria-based organisation said in a statement published on its website. It exported 2,690 tonnes of the yellow variety to neighbouring countries.
"We have a small surplus of white corn that we can export. Exports are brisk and that is good, we have more vessels in Durban going to Mexico," Brink van Wyk, a trader at BVG (Pty) Ltd., said by phone.
White corn for December delivery increased 1.6% to ZAR2,796 (US$344) a tonne by the close in Johannesburg, while the yellow variety rose 1.2% to ZAR2,761 (US$337) a tonne.
