South African Yellow-Corn Exports Reach 14-Year High on Surplus

May 4 (Bloomberg) -- South African yellow-corn exports almost quadrupled to a 14-year high as traders found new markets for a surplus of the grain after farmers reaped a bumper crop.

Outbound shipments jumped to 1.02 million metric tons in the year ended April 30 from 261,608 tons in the prior period, data posted on the South African Grain Information Service’s website today showed. That’s the most since the 1996-97 season, when exports came to 1.13 million tons, General Manager Anna Enslin said by phone from Pretoria. Exports of white corn fell.

Farmers reaped 12.82 million tons of white and yellow corn combined, the most since 1982, on better-than-expected yields, weighing on prices. Traders sold South African yellow corn to nations from Japan to Spain as nearby countries that were traditional export markets also had bumper crops of maize, as the grain is sometimes called.

“The signal is that the market likes our maize and that it prefers yellow corn,” Jannie de Villiers, chief executive officer of Bothaville, South Africa-based Grain SA, the country’s biggest farming body, said by phone from Pretoria. Local farmers, who grow more white corn than yellow, are increasing plantings of the yellow variety, he said.

White corn is used to make a meal that’s the staple food for many South Africans, while yellow corn is mainly fed to animals in the country. White corn fell 21 percent in Johannesburg trading in 2010 and yellow corn declined 12 percent.

Kuwait, Portugal

South Africa shipped 610,721 tons of yellow corn to Korea during the year and 97,880 tons to Japan. It also sold the grain to Kuwait, Portugal, Spain and Taiwan. Outbound shipments of white corn dropped 25 percent to 1.05 million tons. Combined exports of both varieties climbed 24 percent to 2.07 million tons.

South Africa may be in a “tight spot” if exports maintain their pace in the current year, De Villiers said. This season’s crop probably will fall 15 percent to 10.88 million tons, according to the government’s Crop Estimates Committee. Late rain has hampered access to fields, De Villiers said.

White corn for July delivery, the most active contract on the South African Futures Exchange, fell 25 rand, or 1.5 percent, to 1,645 rand ($248) a ton by the noon close in Johannesburg today. July-delivery yellow corn dropped 20 rand, or 1.2 percent, to 1,700 rand.

(Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-05-04/south-african-yellow-corn-exports-reach-14-year-high-on-surplus.html)