March 30, 2005

Zimbabwean corn growers may upset cattle market

The tendency among Zimbabwean corn farmers to buy cattle to resell them later, in order to minimise the effect of the low corn price, might lead to a drop in meat prices, admitted economist Nico Hawkins from the farmers' body Grain SA.

Members of the Red Meat Producers' Organisation have already faced significant losses because of the low corn prices.

Hawkins said some of Grain SA's members doubled as stock farmers to create the best profitable situations for themselves and it is common for corn farmers to be involved in other farming activities.

Corn futures on the JSE Securities Exchange SA ended last week at R570 a ton following the release of the second estimates of the agriculture department's crop estimates committee, which said commercial corn farmers were likely to grow a crop of 11.1 million hectares in the current season. The figure is 8.6 percent higher than earlier estimates.

This season's crop would be the highest since commercial farmers reaped 12.1-million tonnes of corn in the 1993-94 season, said Rona Beukes, spokeswoman for the crop estimates committee.