Total imports of soyabeans equivalent to the 11 months to November 2017 amounted to 127 442 tonnes and is the highest since 2013.

MORE soyabeans will have to be imported to meet the stockfeed and oil expressing industries’ annual 130 000-tonne requirements, this month’s Livestock Report has indicated.
With local growers producing between 20 000 and 30 000 tonnes, the industry expects to continue importing either raw soyabeans or soya meal from Zambia and South Africa.
As production continues to fall below national requirements, soyabean has been included in the Command Agriculture programme in an effort to stimulate increased production.
As part of this broader initiative, a pre-planting price of $780 per tonne has been announced, which is higher than the import parity price.
The Safex Soyabean regional spot prices have oscillated in the region of $370 to $390 between January and April.
“Stockfeed manufacturers currently require 130 000 tonnes of soya for animal feed production, with the bulk of this being imported,” the June 2018 Livestock Update Report said.
Total imports of soyabeans equivalent to the 11 months to November 2017 amounted to 127 442 tonnes and is the highest since 2013.
Traditionally, the trend has been to import soyameal and cake rather than raw soyabeans. In 2016, 78 900 tonnes of soyameal and cake were imported compared with 8 451 tonnes of soyabean.
This trend was reversed in 2017 following recommendations encouraging local beneficiation of imported soyabeans and 67 197 tonnes of beans were imported compared with 49 401 tonnes of soyameal.
“Total imports of soyabeans equivalent for the three months to April 2018 amounted to 13 583 tonnes, a 68 percent reduction from the corresponding period last year. Traditionally, the trend has been to import soyameal and cake rather than raw soyabeans, but government has recently sought to encourage players in the value chain to import raw beans to localise full beneficiation of the crop,” the report said.
Besides soyabeans, the industry also requires maize for manufacturing stockfeed. In the three months to April 2018, 2 145 tonnes of maize worth approximately $980 000 was imported.
Government currently buys maize from farmers at $390 per tonne while international prices are being quoted at between $140 and $160 per tonne.
[email protected]