Market overview
Markets
Februarie 2014
54
The US Fed decided to reduce the size of its
asset purchasing programme of $85 billion
by $10 billion to $75 billion with effect from
January 2014.
Currently, the US economy have been gaining
strong momentum; with recent manufacturing
data coming out stronger than expected, hence
paving up a way for the US Fed to start with the
stimulus tapering (Nedbank Group Economic
Unit, 2014). There are still some expectations
that the rand will continue to trade at low levels,
due to concerns about further labour unrests,
widening current account and budget deficit as
well as the uncertainty of the outcome of the
upcoming elections.
On the other hand, the weak rand supports
domestic commodity prices (yellow maize,
white maize, soybean etc), thus sparking up
gains from the exporting commodities.
Domestic factors
Growing conditions in maize
producing areas
The eastern part of the country (Mpumalanga
and Eastern Free State) where yellow maize is
predominantly planted looks good in general,
with follow-up rains frequently occurring. In
small areas of Mpumalanga too much rain
occurred, leading to some waterlogging;
however the extent of the damage to the crops
is not so detrimental.
The western parts of the country, more
specifically the North West Province started
off with a very dry season and almost no
underground moisture. Thankfully rain
occurred during the beginning of December
making it possible for producers to plant,
although the subsurface moisture has still not
recovered. Seedlings are currently very small.
Some areas in the North West Province are
reported to be very dry, where follow-up rain
remains very critical.
In general, conditions look favourable in the
North Western Free State and Central Free
State although the Hertzogville/Hoopstad
area did not receive enough rain which led
to producers planting less than they had
anticipated. The western parts of the country
require and are dependent on follow-up rain.
Wheat
Producers in the Western Cape completed
their wheat harvest during the end of last year.
Producers in the Swartland region achieved
Graph 2: Prices of white maize delivered in Randfontein.
Graph 3: Prices for new season white maize delivered in Randfontein.
Graph 4: Prices of new season yellow maize delivered in Randfontein.
Overview of the grain markets
Continued from page 53
