South Africa's maize stocks fell to 3.193 million tonnes at the end of December from a revised 3.721 million in the previous month while weekly deliveries from farms ticked up, data showed on Wednesday.
The stocks included 2.202 million tonnes of white maize and 991,000 tonnes of yellow maize, the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) said in its monthly bulletin on its website www.sagis.org.za shortly after the market closed. Exports for the marketing year that began in May stood at 300,000 tonnes at the end of December.
The drop in stocks became the fifth consecutive monthly fall and with traders attributing it to local consumption. "It's mostly due to consumption, and probably a little more than usual being figures for December," one trader said.
South Africa consumes 8 million tonnes of maize each year. Traders have previously said farmers need to increase deliveries to silos in order to improve the stocks position, but weekly deliveries have averaged between 4,000-15,000 tonnes. "We definitely need a lot more coming in," a second dealer said. Farmers delivered 15,000 tonnes to silos last week, up from 11,000 tonnes in the previous week.