September 1, 2010

South Africa focuses on corn exports to South Korea

South Africa is exporting corn to South Korea for the first time in at least eight years as it looks for new markets to clear its excess grain.

The country last week shipped 48,803 tonnes of yellow corn to South Korea, bringing shipments to the country to 158,066 tonnes in the marketing year that began May 1, according to the Pretoria-based South African Grain Information Service. It is also selling corn to West Africa, adding to traditional markets in neighbouring countries.

"It's a way of clearing the surplus," Werner Lindeque, a commodity trader at George, South Africa-based RMD Financial Services said. "Our biggest problem was that Africa more or less had enough corn. The East is opening up a bit."

South Africa's corn crop, which has mostly been harvested, is expected to be 13.09 million tonnes this year, the government's Crop Estimates Committee said on August 24.

As of the end of July, South Africa's corn stockpiles had risen 18% from the year earlier to 9.36 million tonnes. Of that 5.9 million tonnes is in the form of white corn while 3.47 million tonnes is yellow. In South Africa, white corn is used to make corn meal, a staple food, while yellow corn is mainly fed to animals.