South African Agricultural Commodities Weekly Wrap: 02 March 2018

This was a data-packed week for grain and oilseed markets, with the most notable release being the National Crop Estimates Committee’s first production estimates for 2017/18 summer crops, and 2017 winter wheat final production estimates.

From summer crops perspective, the 2017/18 production is set to decline by 25% y/y to 14.6 million tonnes. White maize and sunflower seed production are the key reason for this overall downswing. Meanwhile, winter wheat production estimate was revised up by 3% from the previous month to 1.5 million tonnes, which is however 21% lower than the 2016 harvest.

Overall, this data was slightly better than market expectations but had limited impact on this week’s prices. The grain and oilseed market ended the week on a positive footing, with commercial buying interest, slightly weaker domestic currency and higher international prices providing support

Apart from grains and oilseeds, the fruit and vegetable prices were volatile this week with large daily stock levels underpinning the market. The SAFEX beef carcass market recorded marginal gains from levels seen last week.

Click below for the full report by Wandile Sohlobo

South African Agricultural Commodities Weekly Wrap 02 March 2018