South Africa’s Worst Drought Since 1992 Prompts Corn Imports
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South Africa is importing corn for the first time in 11 months as the worst drought since 1992 destroyed crops in the continent’s biggest producer, the largest local grain farmers’ organization said.
The nation will need to import 934,000 metric tons of yellow corn, worth about $137 million at current international prices, from countries such as Argentina and Ukraine in the year through to the end of March 2016, Grain SA Chief Executive Officer Jannie de Villiers said in an interview in Bloomberg’s Johannesburg office on Wednesday. Three shipments of 30,000 tons each from the Latin American nation are en route to Cape Town to provide feedstock for dairy cows in the Western Cape province, he said.