South Africa has in the 2024-25 market returned to official white maize imports amid domestic shortage and price surge.
This comes after a pricey late 2024 prompted the country to plan to expand the 2025 corn acreage.
At 6,724 Rand ($357.18) a tonne in spot markets as of January 9, 2024, maize pricing is up by 55%, year-on-year (y-o-y).
Shortage is one of the factors fueling the priciness and imports. According to Wandile Sihlobo, the chief economist at Agbiz, SA ended the 2023-24 fiscal year in April 2024 with meager reserves at 1.3 million tonnes.
The economist suggests that stable use of this stock would see the quantity depreciate to 277,884 tonnes by April 2025.
South Africa proved quite generous to Zimbabwe by shipping record volumes of white maize in 2024, ignoring impending local drought.
Now that wholesale prices are up and volumes are thinning, the country has looked abroad again. Its first freight of non-private trade imported maize since 2017 docked in Durban early 2024.
The Bahamas’ freighter, the African Baza, weighed in at Durban and was offloading some 23,700 tonnes of corn from the U.S on January 13.
In February 2025 there may still be another arrival of double this volume at 46,000 tonnes. This according to Dr. Andre van der Vyer of the South African Cereals and Oilseed Trade Association (SACOTA).
But this does not mean that South Africa has been altogether enjoying maize import chastity in the interim. SACOTA and affiliates, for instance, have apparently shipped in 518,000 tonnes of corn (yellow maize) through the 2024-25 season.
Notably, the last official imports in 2017 had happened at a time when weather ravages had brought the corn sector to its knees.
2025’s import turnaround likewise owes to ravaging weather, which saw South Africa’s 2024 production decrease by 22.5%, y-o-y.
Last season’s total production of white maize depreciated by 29.3% to 6 million tonnes while yellow maize shed 15.4% to 6.72 million tonnes.
In short, over-exporting and weather-related shortage have made maize a dear commodity in the tip of Africa, early 2025. The facts below extend the topic further by examining the import price statistics of South Africa’s maize sector.
South Africa Maize Import Price Statistics
As the 10th biggest maize producer in the world at 16.8 million tonnes ( 2023-24), South Africa rarely resorts to maize imports. Indeed, yearly exports have always been in the 3 to 3.5 million-tonne margin (2021 to 2023). This has helped retain around 11.8 million tonnes for consumption.
However, national imports could reach 350,000 tonnes in the 2024-25 year, up from 134,000 tonnes in September 2024. It is price, however, rather than tonnage that could influence how much South Africa actually imports this entire market year. For instance, the import rate for yellow corn was at 5,431 Rand ($288.28) a tonne in December 2024, up by 43% from February 2024. White maize in turn recorded an import rate rise by 70%, to 6,670 Rand ($354.04) a tonne.
How much has South Africa paid for imported maize since early 2023?
Between 2023 and 2025, private maize import trade into South Africa has seen fluctuating import prices. According to South African Grain Information Service, the import price at the Cape Town Port started at 6,036.05 Rand ($320) per tonne on January 9, 2023. Its cheapest point that year was 4,851.05 Rand ($257.35) a tonne on August 22, 2023. 2024 had generally low import rates, with the most affordable at 4,252. 71 Rand ($225.66) on August 27, 2024.