SOUTH African maize futures fell sharply on Monday as rains swept across key grain growing belts, offering hope to despairing farmers, cooperatives said. The weather bureau predicted scattered thundershowers for the maize-growing North West province and heavy falls in the north-east of the Free State province, another key maize producing region. “The crisis we had a week ago has been stopped with these rains. We can go another 10-14 days without rain,” said Christo Booyens, the grain marketing manager at Senwes, one of South Africa’s largest agricultural companies. I would say that 50% of our crop will benefit from this rain and could have a slight increase in yields from what we were expecting last week,” Booyens said. The prices on the South African Futures Exchange plunged as scores of farmers won more surety on their ability to deliver into their contracts. – Reuters
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