SA’s 2018 maize harvest up 2% from previous estimate

South Africa’s maize harvest is expected to be 13.207 million tonnes this year, higher than previous estimates, due to improved weather conditions, the government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said on Wednesday.

The CEC’s latest estimate is 2% higher compared with the 12.91 million tonnes it forecast in May.

The estimate is slightly higher than a Reuters poll that pegged the harvest at 12.99 million tonnes.

However, the expected harvest is 21% lower than the record 16.82 million tonnes harvested in 2017 when yields were boosted by favourable weather conditions across the maize belt. The previous record of 14.656 million tonnes was set in 1981.

This year’s harvest is expected to consist of 6.879 million tonnes of the food staple white maize and 6.327 million tonnes of yellow maize used mainly in animal feed, the CEC said, in its fifth production forecast for the 2017/2018 season.

Maize prices have remained depressed since the bumper 2017 harvest, with the white maize contract ending July closing down 61%  at R2 064 ($150) from the record highs it reached in January 2016 of R5 350 after a severe drought impacted yields.

The CEC forecast the soya beans harvest would reach a record 1.550 million tonnes on increased deliveries, compared with the previous record of 1.316 million tonnes last year.