Johannesburg — The producer price of white maize and wheat has fallen year on year - despite the planting season coinciding with the highest agricultural input costs in South African history - but the price of bread and maize-meal has kept rising.

Grain South Africa, an association representing grain farmers, said in a statement on 4 June that between 1 April 2008 and 1 April 2009, the price of white maize had fallen by 14 percent, and that of wheat by 35 percent, but between March 2008 and March 2009, bread prices had risen by 25 percent and maize-meal by 6.33 percent.

Grain South Africa's CEO, Kobus Laubscher, told IRIN: "The causes of higher food prices did not come from the producer side. Food inflation is [coming] from ... services added beyond the farmer's gate. Farmers have played their part in providing food security."

The Department of Agriculture's latest monthly bulletin on food security said the expected commercial maize crop for the 2008/09 production season was 11.2 million tons, about 11.8 percent less than the 2007/08 harvest of 12.7 million tons.

"Projections for the current 2009/10 marketing season indicate that South Africa will have a surplus of 2.1 million tons of maize at the end of April 2010," the bulletin said.

The agricultural department has estimated a surplus of 655,000 tons of wheat at the end of September 2009.

If all white maize were to be imported, the RSA [Republic of South Africa] would've had to pay R4.55 billion [about $570 million] more for the 4,340,000 tons which are used locally

African exports

Neels Ferreira, chairperson of Grain SA, said in the statement that South Africa had exported nearly two million tons of "relatively cheap" white maize in the past year, mainly to 22 African countries, with the lion's share - about 526,000 tons - going to Zimbabwe, more than 570,000 tons to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, about 386,000 tons to Kenya, and more than 282,000 tons to Mozambique.

"The local white maize price was, on average, R1,050 (about US$125) per ton lower than the price of what imported white maize would have been if there were a shortage," Ferreira said.

"If all white maize were to be imported, the RSA [Republic of South Africa] would've had to pay R4.55 billion [about $570 million] more for the 4,340,000 tons which are used locally."

Laubscher said, "The current harvest was put in with the highest input costs in history," and the low maize prices - a consequence of excessive supply and low demand - would mean "low margins" for farmers, and would probably lead to a "restructuring" of crops to be planted in the next season.

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]