South Africa produces too much corn. Its neighbors not enough. However, rather than feeding its neighbors, South Africa’s surplus corn may feed Chinese chickens because of regional worries about genetically modified crops.
South African farmers grew 13 million tonnes of corn in the harvest that ended in May. That included a surplus of 4 million tonnes, an excess that has pushed down prizes and threatens to bankrupt 10,000 farmers.
“The industry was not prepared for what happened. The surplus was causing panic. Over-production is not a sustainable way of producing,” said Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety.
Most of South Africa’s neighbors had bumper harvests as well, driving down demand.
However, even countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, which suffer chronic food shortages, refuse to accept South African corn because of worries about importing genetically modified organisms.
South Africa began planting genetically modified crops in the 1990s, and now they account for 57 percent of all corn planted in the country. Often the harvests are mixed together at mills, so that importers consider all corn as genetically modified (GM).
“Even some countries who don’t have proper biosafety laws have a ban on GM, like Zimbabwe,” Mayet said.
South Africa’s surplus “has to go to special markets. Countries for whom GM is not a problem,” she added.
In April, Kenyan environmentalists blocked a shipment of 40,000 tonnes of South African corn at port in Mombasa.
Regional reticence has left South Africa searching farther afield for a buyer, with China a leading candidate.
The government earlier this month sent a delegation to China to discuss selling the surplus, most likely as feed to chicken farmers.
“The negotiations will become formal hopefully in October, when a Chinese delegation will come to South Africa,” agriculture ministry adviser Ramse Madote said after returning from the trip.
Neither the proposed price nor the terms of the sale have been made public, but farmers fear that they’ll get a low price because the Chinese know South Africa won’t get better offers.
“The terms being negotiated with China are bound to reflect South Africa’s lack of alternative options,” said Philip White of the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme, an anti-poverty group.
It’s a painful paradox in a region where millions of people will require emergency food aid.
“Even in a relatively plentiful year like this one, significant numbers of people continue to face hunger and many end up needing emergency assistance,” White said.
About 1.7 million people in Zimbabwe, 500,000 in Malawi and 250,000 in Mozambique will need food aid this year, according to the UN World Food Program.
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS