South Africa’s feed manufacturers and animal protein producers face higher ingredient costs. FAO’s latest food price trends bulletin reports that May 2015 prices for yellow maize in South Africa were 17 percent higher than a year earlier.
The corn price has been driven up by the anticipation of sharply reduced 2015 production, which is forecast to be down by 30 percent from last year’s bumper crop.
However, despite the unfavorable production prospects, substantial stock levels of more than 2 million tonnes and low international prices limited larger price gains.
The increase in maize prices in South Africa is expected to continue to exert inflationary pressure on the importing countries of the subregion, namely Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, which are also forecasting reduced harvests this year.
