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PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA — Despite high commodity prices to provide incentive for corn and wheat planting, acreage for the two crops in South Africa is expected to remain flat in the 2022-23 marketing year due to the lack of availability and high cost of inputs, according to a Global Agricultural Information Network report from the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The USDA said the cost of farming inputs, especially fertilizer, more than doubled this past year, increasing the risk of production in a weather-dependent industry. As a result, the USDA forecasts that South Africa’s corn area will stay flat in in 2022-23, while wheat area will increase by a modest 10%.
However, the report noted that South Africa should maintain its status as a net exporter of corn with exports of 2.5 million tonnes, while wheat and wheat products imports should remain at 1.7 million tonnes.
South Africa’s rice imports are expected to increase by 3% to 1.1 million tonnes on a marginal growth in demand.
Assuming normal weather conditions and including the subsistence farming sector, South Africa’s total corn crop for 2022-23 could reach 15.6 million tonnes, which is slightly larger than the expected corn crop of 15.1 million in 2021-22. The USDA projects South Africa’s wheat output at 2.1 million tonnes in 2022-23, after producing 2.3 million tonnes in 2021-22.
This year’s World Flour Day is planned for March 20 and will be celebrated under the motto “Flour and People-Flour means the world to us.” The focus for this third World Flour Day is the significance of flour for each person.
World Flour Day was initiated by the FlourWorld Museum to honor flour as one of the most important staple foods. The FlourWorld Museum in Wittenburg near Hamburg, Germany, holds the world’s largest collection of flour sacks, with more than 3,700 sacks from 140 countries. Flour.Power.Life is the guiding principle under which the sacks tell about the traditions, history and myths of flour.
As part of World Flour Day, the museum will unveil the Flour Sack of the Year, celebrating a flour sack design that best illustrates this year’s motto. Winners are displayed in the museum, an initiative of Mühlenchemie, a member of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe.
In honor of World Flour Day, here are six previous Flour Sack of the Year honorees.
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, US — The Grain Elevator and Processing Society’s GEAPS Exchange 2022 got underway March 26 at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, US, with the first full day on the expo floor March 27.
The March 26-29 event features 45 hours of educational programming, special events and an expo with the latest grain handling and processing solutions.
With manufacturers, suppliers and customers from across the globe filling the convention center and making connections, here a few photos from the expo’s first day.
Input costs hindering South African corn, wheat planting – World Grain
