S.African corn falls, as US Benchmark’s retreated

White corn in South Africa, the largest producer of the grain on the continent, fell after prices retreated a second day in the US, which competes for African export markets.

Corn futures for December delivery dropped 0.5 per cent, to $3.9325 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade as of 9:07 a.m. Johannesburg time. Corn reserves in the US, the world’s largest grower, will fall 7.1 per cent to 1.373 billion bushels (34.6 million metric tons) by August next year, the US Department of Agriculture said July 9. That compares with the 1.292bn bushel average estimate of 23 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.