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Johannesburg - White maize fell for a third day, extending its first quarterly decline since 2014, as farmers’ deliveries of the grain increased after the pace of harvesting in growing areas improved.
While maize for July delivery dropped 1.3% to R4 622.40 a metric ton on the South African Futures Exchange in Johannesburg, taking the quarterly drop to 2.7%, the first such decline since the three months through September 2014.
Yellow maize for delivery in December retreated 1.8% to R3 582 a ton, the lowest since May 17.
Deliveries of white and yellow maize increased 83% to 502 771 tonnes in the week ended June 24 from seven days earlier, Pretoria-based South African Grain Information Service said in statement on Wednesday.
Deliveries of the white variety more than doubled to 186 598 tonnes, while those of the yellow type jumped 68% to 316 113 tons.
"This signifies an increase in harvesting pace," Wandile Sihlobo and Tinashe Kapuya, economists at Agricultural Business Chamber, said in an e-mailed report on Thursday.
While deliveries are up on the week, they have declined 36% so far this season, now in its ninth week, from a year earlier, reaching 2.78 million tonnes.
South Africa, the continent’s biggest maize grower and usually a net exporter of agricultural products, may need to import 3.8 million tonnes of corn this year, according to Grain SA, the biggest lobby for grain and oil seed farmers.
That’s after rainfall last year declined to the least since records started in 1904, damaging crops and raising prices.
