Some countries in the Southern Africa region have some maize supplies from the recent harvest. South Africa is likely to see its exports slow down for now, particularly to countries in the region. We may continue to see encouraging export volumes to the Far East and other areas of the world.
Still, towards the end of the year and into 2026, when domestic supplies are somewhat depleted in the various countries in the region, they will return to the market and import maize. This was not the case last season, as most countries were negatively affected by the drought and required massive imports throughout. This time around, we had favourable summer rains that supported grain production across the Southern Africa region.
It is this brief context that we must keep in mind when observing maize export data these days. The exports aren’t down because our maize is expensive; in fact, maize prices have been under pressure in recent weeks as farmers delivered decent maize volumes to silos, and South Africa expects an ample harvest of 15.80 million tonnes, which is 23% higher than the crop for the 2023-24 season.
It is against this background that, for example, maize exports for the past week were mediocre. For example, South Africa exported 14,428 tonnes of maize in the week of August 22, all of which was destined for the Southern African region.
This placed South Africa’s 2025-26 maize exports at 553,808 tonnes, out of the expected seasonal exports of 2.12 million tonnes. The current marketing year only ends in April 2026.
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