South Africa is in line to ship between 150,000 and 200,000 tonnes of maize to rain-starved Kenya over the coming months, shippers said on Tuesday, offering a much-needed boost to the industry's ailing export sector.
Kenya said it needed to import 4.0 million 90-kg bags or 360,000 tonnes of maize, to fight a severe food shortage affecting more than three million people.
Kenya's agriculture minister said on June 20 that its stocks would last between one month and six weeks.
The bulk carrier Pistis was being loaded with around 15,000 tonnes of white maize on Tuesday, shipping sources said. Silos were being booked to hold more than 150,000 tonnes more, although tenders had not yet been issued.
Sources said the Pistis cargo was part of a commercial, rather than government, contract and so could still be liable for duties of 25 percent which had been waived by the Kenyan government in an effort to increase grain supplies.
But sources close to the negotiations said the problem would now be getting the stock to Durban's docks on South Africa's antiquated railway system, which they said could only deliver 50,000 tonnes of maize a month.
"The guys are keeping it very close to their chest. I hear they have booked silo space but there are no vessels booked," one shipping source told Reuters.
The potential order represents the first bit of decent export activity for South Africa's maize industry since the start of the May 2004 to April 2005 marketing year, with South Africa's high prices effectively locking it out of the international export market beyond southern Africa.
Zambia's plentiful crop this year has also been stealing away some of South Africa's traditional trade from customers such as Zimbabwe and Malawi.
South Africa has exported just 112,000 tonnes of white maize since the start of May and 6,709 tonnes of the yellow variety or 9,100 tonnes a week on average compared to 23,000 tonnes per week on average in the 2003/04 year.
Shippers said Kenya was looking to South Africa as it had the biggest surplus stocks in the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) region and could easily source non-genetically modified maize, despite being more expensive than the US product.
Meanwhile, the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) said on Tuesday the country had exported 9,455 tonnes of white maize in the week ending July 30, 6,248 of that going to Lesotho and the remainer going to Botswana and Mozambique.
SAGIS figures also reveal the country imported 10,942 tonnes of wheat - all bar 199 tonnes from Argentina - while another 6,089 tonnes from the US and Argentina passed through the country to Zimbabwe, Zambia and Swaziland. The country was on track to import around 700,000 tonnes of wheat for the 03/04 season, and between 300,000 and 400,000 tonnes of soya beans, shippers said.
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