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Photo: Simphiwe Mbokazi

South Africa's 2009/10 maize surplus is likely to prevent any supply shortage of the grain this year after heavy December and January rains have affected planting, an industry official said on Tuesday.

But the extremely wet conditions may have a significant impact on the soy bean and sunflower harvest, Kobus Laubscher, chief executive of farmers' group Grain SA, told Reuters in an interview.

“Some of the late plantings are suffering because of the heavy rains. But as far as maize is concerned, there is no reason to suspect that we will run into a shortage. We have huge carryovers from last year,” he said.

South Africa, the continent's largest maize producer, harvested 12.815 million tonnes of the grain in the 2009/10 season, the biggest crop in three decades.

The country's annual maize consumption is between 8-9 million tonnes, leaving it with a surplus of about 4 million.

Laubscher said farmers had opted to plant less maize this year due to lower prices for the grain and had increased the area for soy beans, seen as having a more favourable price.

South Africa's benchmark white March maize has fallen nearly 21 percent in price since the start of 2010, with yellow maize for delivery in the same month falling about 10 percent.

On the other hand, soy beans for delivery in March are up nearly 22 percent since the start of last year.

“The movement away from maize to soya brought promises of relief from a profitability point of view, but in some instances the soy plantings are suffering significantly from the heavy rains,” Laubscher said. - Reuters