Browse Data and Analysis

South Africa’s grain production is off to a decent start in marketing year 2022/23. Above-average rains over most parts of the summer rainfall production area during November and December enhanced crop plantings and provided conducive growing conditions.

The Bank of Ghana restricted access to foreign exchange for a select list of imported products, including rice, poultry, vegetable oils, and pasta, among other items, to implement a directive from the President of Ghana.

Post forecasts that South Africa’s corn area will stay flat in marketing year 2022/23. The current high input cost environment and an upsurge in soybean plantings are deterring any bullish outlook in expanding corn area, despite record high commodity prices and three consecutive bumper crops. Higher farming input costs are escalating the risk of production in a weather-dependent industry.

Ethiopia’s Ten-Year Development Plan (2021-2030) identifies sustained and quality agriculture programs to accelerate economic progress and ensure national food security as its national strategy. The development of small and large-scale irrigation infrastructure in the Ethiopian lowlands has recently been given increasing due attention by the GOE - among other contributing factors like improved seed, fertilizer supply, and use of mechanization on the clustered wheat farms.

Nigeria wheat millers are diversifying their sources of wheat import due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis. FAS Lagos (Post) estimates wheat imports for MY 2022/23 at 6 million metric ton (MMT), a 3 percent reduction from last year’s Post estimate. Meanwhile, insurgency and floods in the northern part of the country greatly impacted corn and rice production respectively.

The Government of Ghana (GOG) is pursuing the creation of a Grains Development Authority (GDA) to, among other objectives, further the development and regulation of the market for domestically produced grains and legumes.

Despite lower production in marketing year (MY) 2022/23, Zambia’s production of its staple crop, corn, will be sufficient to meet domestic demand. Zambia’s corn crop is forecast to decline by 25 percent to 2.7 million metric tons (MMT) in MY 2022/23, after producing a record crop 3.6 MMT in MY 2021/22.

The sharp upsurge in the cost of farming inputs for corn farmers in South Africa intensified the risk of production in a weather dependent industry, despite record-high commodity prices. As a result, Post forecasts that South Africa’s corn area will stay flat in marketing year 2022/23. However, South Africa should maintain its status as a net exporter of corn under normal weather conditions.

On June 10, 2022, the Government of Kenya issued additional tariff exemptions for new feed ingredients to address rising feed costs. Duty exemptions were granted for genetically engineered Bt. cottonseed cake, distillers’ dried grains with solubles...

Zimbabwe’s corn crop for marketing year (MY) 2022/23 is estimated at 1.6 million metric tons (MMT), representing a drop of 43 percent from the bumper crop of 2.7 MMT produced in MY 2021/22. Many factors contributed to the drop in production including sub-optimal weather conditions, high input costs and macro-economic challenges.

Angola’s wheat milling capacity has increased to achieve self-sufficiency with five wheat mills now operating in the country, with milling capacity of up to 1 million metric tons of wheat per year.

Rice production in Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Mali is forecast at 8.02 million metric tons (MMT) in MY 2022/23 on average weather, improved irrigation, and enhanced stability in production areas. The 15 percent jump from MY 2021/22 follows a growing season that was plagued by poor weather, militant activity and instability in Mali, and irrigation issues and pest prevalence in Senegal.