SA sunflowers rise to one-week high

Published Nov 19, 2013

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Johannesburg - South African sunflower futures rose to the highest in a week on concern that stocks might be tight in the season, BVG (Pty) Ltd. said. Corn increased.

Sunflowers for delivery in December, the most active contract, climbed 1.3 percent to 5,650 rand ($558) a metric ton, the highest since November 12, by the close on the South African Futures Exchange in Johannesburg.

The nation’s Crop Estimates Committee on September 27 kept its forecast for output of the oilseed in the 2013 season unchanged at 566,000 tons after trimming it 1.7 percent in the previous month.

It will release final production figures on November 28.

Sunflower plantings will surge 23 percent to 620,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) in the 2014 season, the committee said October 24.

“Stocks are tight and South Africa will be almost out of sunflower early in 2014,’” Brink van Wyk, a trader at Pretoria-based BVG, said in an e-mailed response to questions.

“Processors are covering their needs.”

White corn for delivery in December advanced 0.7 percent, the most in more than a week, to 2,430 rand a ton, while the yellow variety increased 0.3 percent to 2,370 rand a ton.

South Africa is the continent’s biggest corn producer.

A meal made from white corn is a staple food in the nation and the yellow variety of the grain is mostly fed to animals. - Bloomberg News

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