South Africa has imported a total of 246 268 tons of wheat for domestic consumption since October 4, the beginning of the 2003/04 marketing year, the South African Grain Information Service (Sagis) reported on Tuesday.
At this stage, South Africa’s wheat import gap for the 2003/04 marketing year stands at between 900 000 and one-million tons — the highest import requirement since the 1992/92 year, when just over one-million tons of wheat was imported.
The imported wheat has mainly come from the US but also from the UK, Germany, Australia and Argentina.
During the same period, South Africa has re-exported a total of 142 485 tons of US, Canadian, Argentina and German wheat to southern Africa countries.
During the week from January 10 to 16, South Africa exported 3 425 tons of local wheat to Lesotho and Botswana and re-exported a total 5 966 tons of US wheat from South Africa to Lesotho, Zambia and Swaziland.
In the same week, South Africa imported a total of 31 712 tons of Australian and Argentine wheat through the Durban port with 29 712 tons for local consumption and the remaining 2 000 tons going to Zimbabwe. – I-Net Bridge