The white maize spot price has decreased week on week to R6,400, while the July’25 price has risen to R4,558. The yellow maize spot price has decreased week on week to R5,100, with the July’25 price now at R4,109 per ton. The soybean spot price has decreased week on week to R9,025, while the May’25 price stands at R7,705 per ton.

The sunflower spot price has decreased week on week to R10,510, with the May’25 price standing at R9,750 per ton. The wheat spot price has increased week on week to R5,940, with the March’25 price at R6,085 per ton. The sorghum import parity price landed in Durban is at R5,277 per ton, while the producer’s import parity price for dehulled Argentine groundnuts is trading at R27,331 per ton, and the cotton import parity price is trading at R10,800 per ton.

Internationally, prices have remained stable over the past week, with CBOT soybeans up by 3 cents, CBOT wheat down by 3 cents, and CBOT maize down by 1 cent from last week. President Trump announced plans to impose more import tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Mexico is the largest importer of US maize, and the President of Mexico stated that if these import tariffs come into effect, there will be consequences in terms of imports. China also reported that they will halt imports from the US by January 2025 to wait and see if the tariffs will be implemented. The concern we have is that these import tariffs will negatively impact demand and further pressure US prices.
As we mentioned a few weeks ago, the drivers of the spot month price for this time of year are stocks and what is still available domestically. For the July’25 or new season prices, the drivers are the weather, plantings, and crop quality. These drivers are exactly what is keeping prices at a higher level right now.

The spot month prices for maize and soybeans have maintained their strong upward trend over the past week. If we look at the supply and demand factors, we see that in terms of white maize, we are 100,000 tons down from the 2015/16 season’s ending stock with three months to go, and this is the factor that is keeping the white maize price on its upward trend. Moving to July’25, we can see that the price is also rising sharply. This increase is due to poor rains and soil moisture, which is generally low to very low. The eastern parts of the country, where most of the planting has already occurred, are dry to very dry, and there are reports that some producers have already had to replant. These factors introduce a lot of uncertainty into the market regarding next year’s crop size and quality, and this keeps the price at a higher level. The reason why white maize reacts so strongly to this news is that white maize is produced only in certain areas of the world, and if we have to import it, these imports would be incredibly expensive.