Agriculture ministry looks to Mexico as a source of white maize imports
DUBAI, Feb 7 (Reuters) - South Africa will not declare a national disaster in response to a drought that has hurt agricultural production, the country's deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries Bheki Cele told Reuters on Sunday.
"As we are experiencing this kind of drought, for some reason God has been kind and late rains did come, and we think the 6 million tonnes (of maize) we were looking to import - we have downgraded that to four," he said in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.
"The only hope is that rains continue - if they do we might be out of the woods," Cele said, adding: "We will not declare a national disaster."
He said the ministry was looking at Mexico as a source of white maize imports, but that if ample rain continued, total maize imports might go below the currently projected 4 million tonnes.
South Africa's ports are fully prepared receive maize imports, he added. (Reporting by Maha El Dahan; Writing by Hadeel Al Sayegh and Andrew Torchia)
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