The reach of European empires and of Indian Ocean trade networks drew southern Africa into the global politics of opium around the turn of the twentieth century.

 While South Africa’s 2019/20 summer crop production season started on a negative footing with delayed rainfall across the country, farmers managed to plant the area they intended.

Today, South Africa’s Crop Estimates Committee will release its preliminary planting estimates for 2019/20 summer crops. This is important data as it will give an idea of the potential size of major grains harvest, such as maize.

In recent years, the high prices recorded and the growing consumption of blueberries have led to increases in the volume produced and in the number of growing countries.

Maize: The tight old crop ending stocks for both white and yellow maize supported prices.

Accounting for roughly one-third of the world’s annual vegetable oil production, palm oil — cultivated in the Asian, African and Latin American tropics — constitutes the most widely consumed, traded and high-yielding vegetable oil commodity in the world.