S Africa will need to import up to 6Mt of maize – Zokwana
South Africa will have to import between five-million and six-million tons of white and yellow maize, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana said during a media briefing on Friday.
National Agricultural Marketing Council CEO Ronald Ramabulana noted that this would have a significant impact on the cost of maize in South Africa, while Grain SA CEO Jannie de Villiers outlined that it would cost roughly R20-billion to import the maize.
“We are not even talking about wheat, soya or bean meal,” he added.
De Villiers warned that the country’s stock of white maize would run dry by September, adding that it would not be easy to secure supply from elsewhere in the world, as only the US and Mexico produced white maize.
Meanwhile, Zokwana said he was confident that the country’s ports had capacity to handle the expected imports, but better coordination between port use and internal logistics would be needed.
The Minister further said farmers should not believe that they are alone in their hour of need and that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries had, together with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, committed R371.7-million for Land Care programmes in the coming year.
He noted that these programmes were a community-based and government-supported approach to the sustainable management and use of agricultural natural resources.
He also highlighted that his department had, together with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, made a request to National Treasury for additional funds to further assist farmers in dealing with the current drought disaster.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation