Winter wheat harvest process is in full swing in the Western Cape, with the progress made thus far reflected on the producer deliveries data which amounted to 250 376 tonnes in the week of 02 November 2018.
This equates to 28 percent of the Western Cape’s expected wheat harvest.
The weather conditions were favourable in most parts of the Western Cape last week, and that enabled farmers to increase the winter wheat harvest pace. The progress made will be reflected in the producer deliveries data for the week of 09 November 2018 which are due for release tomorrow.
While the crop in other provinces is still far from harvesting due to differences in planting period , there are expectations of higher yields due to favourable weather conditions. This is specifically the Northern Cape, Free State, Eastern Cape and Limpopo, amongst others.
While production could improve in the 2018/19 season to 1.86 million tonnes on the back of the aforementioned favourable production conditions, South Africa will remain a net importer of wheat (1.4 million tonnes), therefore, developments in the global market could influence the local activities.
The USDA forecasts 2018/19 global wheat production at 734 million tonnes, which is 4 percent lower than the previous season’s harvest. The decline is mainly due to an expected lower harvest in Australia, Russia, Canada and the EU region amongst others. Meanwhile, consumption is expected to remain fairly stable despite the uptick in prices. As a result, the global wheat ending stocks could fall by 7 percent from the 2017/18 season to 260 million tonnes, which should support global wheat prices in the near-to-medium term.
