The Far East is once again a key destination for South Africa’s maize exports. In the first 13 weeks of the 2025/26 marketing year (1 May 2025 to 30 April 2026), South Africa exported 428 975 tonnes of maize – nearly half of it to Far Eastern markets: 25% to Vietnam, 12% to Taiwan and 11% to South Korea.
By Nico van Burick, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at Agbiz, says these are not new markets for our maize. We typically export yellow maize for animal feed to the Far East during seasons of abundance, but shipments dropped last season due to drought.
In the last week of July alone, South Africa exported 63 807 tonnes of maize, with 79% going to Taiwan and the rest to Southern African markets. This pushed cumulative exports for the first quarter of the 2025/26 marketing year to 428 975 tonnes. The expected total for the year is 2 million tonnes.
Last season, our export activity focused on the African continent, Sihlobo says. The region was hit by drought and needed maize more than other regions for staple food, so that’s where South Africa channelled its maize exports, mainly white maize.
South Africa was also hit by drought in 2024, but we still had a relatively decent yield and well as surplus stock from the previous season, which enabled us to export more maize to the continent. Zimbabwe accounted for 56% of South Africa’s maize exports of 2,3 million tonnes last year.
Also read: Why Africa isn’t the short-term answer for SA’s agricultural exports
An Abundant Maize Harvest
This year, the situation in Southern Africa is looking much better. Zambia, the second-largest maize producer in Southern Africa, is expecting a yield of 3,66 million tonnes – which would be 1,5 million tonnes more than last year.
Zimbabwe’s current production is forecast at 1,3 million tonnes, according to data from the Pretoria-based unit of the US Department of Agriculture. This is more than twice the output from the previous season, but still below the 2 million tonnes the country requires for domestic consumption.
In South Africa, our estimated maize production is at 15,03 million tonnes, 17% higher than last season’s harvest. This is well above our annual maize needs of about 12 million tonnes, which means we’ll have a surplus and remain a net exporter of maize.
Sihlobo says we will likely see more robust export activity later in the year once farmers have finished harvesting and there is grain in the silos.
