"The situation has worsened again since last month as the drought and heatwave conditions have prevailed," the industry said. "Summer crop plantings in the eastern areas of the country have been relatively good, but follow-up rain is required urgently. In the western areas (western Free State and North West province), plantings have been very sharply down on last year.
"This situation will become clearer once the crop estimates committee releases its preliminary estimates of summer crop plantings towards the end of January," it said. "Initial nonofficial estimates are that the maize crop could be less than half of what it was last year and that up to five million tons of maize will need to be imported to satisfy local demand.
"Added to the serious weather problems, the recent sharp fall in the value of the Rand will lead to significant increases in agricultural machinery and summer crop prices. This is going to have a serious knock-on effect through the whole South African economy," it said.
The association said the agricultural and agricultural machinery industries, in particular, were going to be facing a very difficult future in 2016 and would be fighting for their very existence in forthcoming months.
Source: BDpro
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