The market in brief
The breaking news of October is the sudden stop of rainfall from the end of September to now in most of the Sahelian belt. This early end of the rainy season partly reduce the prospect of very good harvests in West Africa. Late sowings and long cycle varieties may particularly suffer of lack of water at end of their production cycle.
Despite the
starting of harvests in many producing areas, grain prices remained relatively
stable during October because stocks continue to decrease while new output came
slowly into the market;
About rice
production, significant differences are observed between the various countries
of the sub region. In Benin, the production should have a net decline unlike
Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Guinea, where it should increase thanks to
policies to support the production of rice and relatively good weather.
In most
countries of West Africa, this month of October was characterized by low
availability of residual supply of maize, millet and sorghum and the slow
emergence of new maize millet and sorghum;
Overall, in the
coming weeks, the grain supply is expected to increase in most countries and
thus cause a fall in prices. However, the lack of rain in October, changed the
forecasts for 2017. As the production, should not increase as much as expected
and consumption should increase faster, prices could go up significantly during
2017.
