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CHAPTER 1
firm called King and Sons, who exported a small quantity of maize to the United
Kingdom (Britain) in 1893. In the decade after that it increased, and the trend in-
dicated that South Africa could possibly become a regular maize export country.
The Natal producers, who focused more on agronomy than the producers in the
republics in the interior, also experimented with exports. In 1907 a newspaper at
the time reported that the Transvaal government was impressed with the success
of the Natal exports to the extent that they decided to establish a large maize-
producing industry in the Transvaal and allocated a specific amount for this.
Maize exports by the Transvaal from about 1908 helped to stabilise prices, as the
local supply had already started to exceed the domestic demand. However, it was
already clear that the exporting of maize had to be approached in a more scientific
manner. The governments of the different colonial regions in South Africa conse-
quently appealed to traders to provide support with the selling of grain – not just
locally, but also on overseas markets. The quantity of maize consumed in England
and the different employment opportunities for this in Europe created good market
opportunities for South African maize.
The government played an active role in the exports by facilitating the logistical
arrangements and even offered special rail and shipping freight tariffs for exports.
Copies of weekly maize market reports from England were provided at railway sta-
tions and producers were strongly encouraged to plant more maize.
By 1910 maize was already being exported to 16 countries from South Africa, in-
cluding to Canada, Australia, Britain and India.
In 1914, Joseph Burt Davy wrote in his book,
Maize – Its history, Cultivation, Han-
dling and Uses
that the considerable growth of the South African maize industry
up to that stage would not have been possible if it had not been for the export mar-
ket, because the domestic use would not have been able to absorb the production.
From 1918 to 1939 South Africa was primarily a net exporter of maize. During this
period maize was imported only once, namely 272 tons during the 1933/1934 sea-
son. In the 1920s maize exports were reasonably profitable on a constant basis, but
in the 1930s it varied sharply.
As nitrogen was not available in the earliest years, producers mainly used phos-
phate and kraal manure as fertilisers. In 1903 phosphate was manufactured by the
fertiliser factory SAFCO, which was based in Durban. Later, by about 1919/1920,
companies like Kynoch and Cape Explosives manufactured large quantities of
phosphate as a by-product of explosives.
INITIALLY, GRAIN PRODUCTION FOCUSED MAINLY
ON LAND THAT COULD BE IRRIGATED IN SOME WAY.
PRODUCERS PLOUGHED WITH OXEN AND PLANTED AND
HARVESTED BY HAND. DISC PLOUGHS WERE REGARDED
MORE AS MODERN IMPLEMENTS. NEVERTHELESS,
PRODUCTION GRADUALLY INCREASED AND AS
AGRICULTURE GREW, PETROL AND PARAFFIN-POWERED
TRACTORS AND MECHANISED PLANTERS WERE
IMPORTED. IN ADDITION THE FACT THAT THE PLANTERS
COULD PLANT CONSIDERABLY LARGER AREAS IN THE
SAME TIME, THEY HELD THE BENEFIT OF MORE EVEN
DISTRIBUTION OF SEED AND THEREFORE
MORE OPTIMUM USE.