Escalting tensions in Ukraine are causing cereal supply disruptions to South Africa and pushing up food prices.
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Workers and farmers in Zimbabwe are not being paid and the agricultural minister says a cash injection is urgent.
The Zimbabwean government has restricted the importation of poultry and sugar, and banned maize imports.
The Zimbabwe government’s decision to ban the private import of grain is being criticised.
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An expectation of rain in maize-producing areas has seen the price of the yellow variety fall to a three-week low.
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Fears over supply shortages has seen white maize prices climb to the highest levels since it had begun trading on the futures excahnge in 1996.
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Tight supply aggravated by drought in the North West is causing local maize prices to rise to import parity.
Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson says the country needs farmers to respect early-warning systems for drought.
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Zimbabwe’s Agricultural minister says Zambia is no longer giving the country maize on credit.
Without proper and immediate planning by the government, the expected water shortage in South Africa will have disastrous consequences.
Zimbabwe’s Agriculture Minister Joseph Made says that imported maize is being handed out to vulnerable people in a bid to stave of famine.
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Maize futures has fallen to a one-month low as the strengthening of the rand made imports more affordable.
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Aid is needed to feed more than two million people as the government runs out of maize reserves.
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South Africa may run out of yellow maize if exports of the grain rise further, a stock firm specialising in agricultural futures has said.
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Signs of a potentially improved global wheat supply see local prices drop.
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Maize prices have increased after the most yellow maize in more than two years was shipped, raising concern that stocks are insufficient.
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Those in favour point to improved yields, those against say yield is due to management, not crops.
Some of this country’s richest maize farmland is also home to some of our poorest people.
A major maize shortage has sent the price of maize meal spiralling in Zimbabwe, prompting traders to lobby government to consider importing GM maize.
With food prices already soaring around the world, the future looks bleak for SA, too, as the price of staple foods could more than double by 2030.
Adverse weather in other major grain-producing countries has speculators betting on costs rising.
SA maize and citrus farmers are setting their sights on Asia as they grapple with increasing competition in Africa and falling demand in Europe.
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/ 5 December 2011
Agricultural bodies and government have discounted reports of pending doom due a shortage in South Africa’s maize stocks.
Consumers want their maize meal and flour to be white, even though this makes them less healthy.
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/ 10 November 2011
With the largest harvest of maize in three decades during the 2009/10 season, SA has potentially exported more maize than is available as surplus.
Campaigners say plants being grown in US may worsen global food crisis, while farmers express cross-contamination fears.
The production of maize, a staple for millions of South Africans, is predicted to plummet by 35% by 2030.
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/ 30 November 2010
SA’s maize prices, which have largely been depressed this year, will remain under pressure in 2011 unless the country secures new export markets.
A deal for Daewoo Logistics to lease over one million hectares of Madagascar to grow food crops is off, the island’s new leader said on Wednesday.
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/ 21 November 2008
South Korea is hoping to turn an undeveloped stretch of Madagascar into a maize-production centre.
”No farmers, no future.” So says the bumper sticker on farmer Bully Botma’s white bakkie, parked in Bothaville, South Africa’s mealie capital.
Climate change could cut SA’s maize crop by 20% as the west of the country dries out while the east is afflicted with increasingly severe storms.