South Africa’s maize exports continue smoothly, supported by robust global demand and improved domestic port operations.
Since the start of the 2025-26 marketing year in May 2025, South Africa has exported maize to a range of countries, including South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, France, and Zimbabwe, amongst others.
But Zimbabwe has been a major buyer of maize from South Africa. Of the 1.01 million tonnes exported so far, 28% went to Zimbabwe, while other countries accounted for modest shares.
Zimbabwe will likely remain a major maize buyer, as we anticipate it will need to import about 700,000 tonnes in the 2025-26 marketing year to meet the annual consumption of 2.0 million tonnes.
While Zimbabwe’s maize harvest recovered this year, it is not sufficient to meet the annual consumption. The country has a maize harvest of 1.3 million tonnes, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Pretoria.
Thus, I suspect we will see strong maize exports to Zimbabwe in the first quarter of 2026. Of course, South Africa may not be the only source for maize. Zambia also has a surplus and may export to Zimbabwe.
Overall, we see South Africa’s maize exports fairly strong and are still halfway through the expected 2.2 million tonnes for the 2025-26 marketing year, which ends in April 206. In the coming weeks and months, we will likely see more robust exports to the world market.
South Africa had an excellent production season. The country’s 2024-25 maize harvest (corresponding with the 2025-26 marketing year) is estimated at 16.32 million tonnes, 27% higher than the 2023-24 season’s crop.
Importantly, these forecasts are well above South Africa’s annual maize needs of approximately 12.00 million tonnes, indicating a surplus and continued net maize exports.
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