October 12, 2010

South African appeals for biofuel corn sales

South Africa's government is negotiating with the Competition Commission to ease rules banning farmers from selling their excess corn production for biofuels, a government official said.

"I support the idea that food crops should not be used for biofuels. However, we are now faced with a situation where we have a surplus of corn. It now becomes necessary for us as a country to reposition our decision", said Tina Joemat-Pettersson, South Africa's minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

According to Joemat-Pettersson, South African agriculture industry has a surplus of three million tonnes of corn, which resulted in a decline in grain prices and job anxiety in the corn industry.

The minister said that the government had also placed a request with the competition regulator to allow farmers to pool their corn output for export.

The department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also requires a change of South Africa's biofuels strategy as "it needs to be modified to the current reality", Joemat-Pettersson said, adding that the issue would shortly be submitted to the Minister of Energy, Dipuo Peters.