Johannesburg - Wheat futures traded in South Africa reached a two-week high after the grain advanced in the US market yesterday.
Wheat for delivery in December, the most active contract, rose 0.4 percent to 3,370 rand ($340) a metric ton by the noon close on the South African Futures Exchange in Johannesburg.
That was the highest price since September 11.
Wheat for the same delivery month gained for a fifth session in six yesterday on the Chicago Board of Trade.
“Our wheat is up today due to the US crop that went up,” Brink van Wyk, a trader at BVG (Pty) Ltd., said by phone from Perth, Australia.
South Africa, a net importer of wheat, is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest producer of the grain after Ethiopia and the region’s biggest importer after Nigeria and Sudan, according to US Department of Agriculture data.
White corn for delivery in December was little changed at 2,310.60 rand a ton, while the yellow variety for the same delivery month dropped 0.4 percent to 2,140 rand a ton.
South Africa is the continent’s largest corn producer.
A meal made from the white variety is one of the nation’s staple foods and yellow corn is mostly fed to animals. - Bloomberg News