agriculture
Thursday April 12th, 2018
Our recent interactions with farmers in some soybean growing areas support the National Crop Estimates Committee’s (CEC) view of a possible record crop of 1.39 million tonnes in the 2017/18 production season. The yields expectations vary across the country, mainly ranging from average and above average yield
Thursday April 12th, 2018
The South African tractor sales were up by 41% y/y in March 2018, with 726 units sold. This follows a 12% y/y contraction in February. On average, 23 tractors were sold a day last month compared to 21 tractors in February 2018 and 16 tractors a day in March 2017. Given that this is a fairly quiet period in the fields (in both summer and winter crop growing areas), the private sales were expected to have followed a normal trend, but the overall boost could be linked to government tenders ahead of the end of the financial year. The combine harvester sales were also solid, recorded a 9% y/y uptick, with 25 units sold.
Monday April 16th, 2018
Drier and warm weather conditions have kept the US wheat on the back foot. On 08 April 2018, farmers had planted only 2 percent of the intended area for spring wheat, well below the area planted at the corresponding period last year, according to data from the USDA.
Friday April 20th, 2018
The weather remains a key focus in the local agricultural market but could have a different impact on crops than the past couple of weeks.
Monday April 23rd, 2018
The weather is a primary focus in the South African wheat market as the winter wheat planting period approaches. The Western Cape province, which is a leading winter wheat producing province experienced persistent dryness in the past few months, therefore soil moisture is extremely low across the fields.
The province needs to receive intense and persistent rainfall for soil moisture to improve, which will, therefore, add momentum to the planting process. However, the near-term weather forecasts present more of the same, which is cool and dry weather conditions across the province with the exception of the western areas which could receive light showers of between 16 and 25 millimetres in the week of 25 April 2018.
Tuesday April 24th, 2018
South Africa’s maize crop has generally matured, which means cool and dry conditions are an ideal weather for the crop at this stage of development. The past weekend presented the precise favourable environment, which is cool and drier conditions across the maize-belt.