Strong Feb exports sees South Africa corn stocks fall again: SAGIS

A strong export performance for South Africa’s corn coupled with good domestic demand has shaved a further million mt off the country’s corn stocks, data from the government agency SAGIS showed Tuesday.

The data showed South Africa’s corn exports topped 146,820 mt, with over 80,000 mt seaborne and just under 50,000 mt exported overland to the country’s neighbours.

That is the highest February export figure since 2011, and the biggest monthly export programme since November 2017.

The move comes as domestic demand remains reasonably strong, with 836,817 mt consumed in February, an 11% increase on the same period of 2017, and 5% above the five-year average for this time of the year.

Together, the moves have further eaten into the sizeable stock levels that South Africa has been carrying, with the end of February stock levels put at 5.5 million mt, down from 6.4 million at the beginning of the month.

South Africa's corn crop has been the source of some concerns in recent months, as dry weather afflicted the country. 

However, with the arrival of rains in February, the country is on course to grow some 12 million mt of corn, with export estimates for the year ahead ranging from between 1.5 to 3.5 million mt.