South Africa will allow the import of genetically engineered (GE) white and yellow corn from the United States to mitigate a severe corn shortage caused by a mid-summer drought, Bloomberg reports.
The Department of Agriculture announced on November 19 that it had resolved regulatory issues with the US, paving the way for the issuance of import permits, according to a report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS).
The drought resulted in a 22% drop in South Africa’s domestic corn production, yielding the smallest harvest in five years. The FAS report estimates that South Africa could import some 800,000 tons of corn during the 2024-2025 marketing year (May 2024 to April 2025).
A recent report from South Africa’s Crop Estimates Committee revealed that farmers plan to only marginally increase corn planting for the next harvest. However, the anticipated La Niña weather pattern, typically associated with above-average rainfall in the region, offers some hope for a more bountiful 2025 harvest. The Committee is expected to release its final estimates for the 2023-24 summer crops, including corn, later today.
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