While South Africa’s maize production is down 22% from the last season because of the tough mid-summer drought to an expected harvest of 12,8 million tonnes, we continue to export maize to the Southern African region.
The expected harvest, combined with large carryover stock from the last season, has made South Africa comfortable about maize supplies.
For example, in the week of September 27, South Africa exported 38k tonnes of maize. Of this volume, 54% was exported to Zimbabwe, 17% to Botswana, 15% to Namibia, and the balance to the neighbouring African countries.
Last week’s maize exports placed South Africa’s total maize exports in the 2024-25 marketing year at 929k tonnes out of the expected 1,90 million tonnes (down from 3,44 million tonnes in the 2023-24 marketing year because of the mid-summer drought).
The 2024-25 marketing year started on May 1 2024, and will end by April 2025.