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.