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CHAPTER 1
The committee’s recommendations further included that the Minister of Agricul-
ture’s decision to make the single-channel system applicable to maize marketing
countrywide should suffice, but accepted that different marketing arrangements
could apply in different areas because of different conditions. A reclassification of
the maize areas with differentiated marketing arrangements was proposed.
Other important recommendations by the Brand Committee were that the gov-
ernment should provide producers with support under disaster conditions, and
that the government should commit itself to funding a strategic grain inventory
or to funding export losses associated with predetermined strategic production
volumes. Likewise, the committee maintained that support to certain consumer
groups would be justified, subject to it occurring in such a way that it did not create
the wrong market signals.
1988/1989 surplus
The 1988/1989 season produced a large surplus of maize. Because of this, South
Africa had to export about 4,2 million tons of maize, which made enormous de-
mands on the handling and transport infrastructure. It is almost ironic that South
Africa had to import maize again only a year later because of another drought, and
because of the major shortage of white maize, had to mix yellow and white maize
in producing maize meal.