This would have a negative impact on the producer's ability and willingness to plant the same scale of maize in the coming production season, Ferreira said and... this could lead to problems with the availability of maize, he warned.
"Producers must make a profit in order to be sustainable and will therefore possibly have to adjust their decisions regarding production," he said.
SHOOT: There is less and less incentive for industrialised farms and farmers to farm. There's just less money. The result? Less food. Why? Because the costs to produce are going up, and there is less ability from the consumer end to subsidise (pay for) these costs.
"The price of basic foodstuffs, like maize and wheat which are used as the basis for staple foods, cannot be blamed for the high levels of inflation," Grain SA's chairperson Neels Ferreira said in a statement.
He said the price of white maize from April 1, 2008 to April 1, 2009 had decreased by 13.8% while wheat was down 34.8% in the same period.
However, the price of a 700g loaf of brown bread had increased from R5.75 in March 2008 to R7.21 in March 2009, a rise of 25.39%, Ferreira said.
Of this 526,060 tons were intended for Zimbabwe, 386,586 tons for Kenya, 282,394 tons for Mozambique and 572,385 for Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.
However, Ferreira empathised that the margins for the present crop being harvested were under pressure due to the extremely high input costs teamed with low maize prices.
"Total production costs exceed income measured against current prices by as much as R500 per ton."
|
No comments:
Post a Comment