SA’s 2020 maize crop expected to increase -survey

South African maize farmers are expected to harvest 38% more maize in the 2019/2020 season compared with the previous season after favourable weather conditions boosted yields, a Reuters survey showed on Tuesday.

South Africa’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) is expected to forecast this year’s maize production at 15.574 million tonnes, up from 11.275 million harvested in the 2018/2019 season, which was impacted by dry weather conditions, an average estimate by five traders and analysts showed.

The estimate is slightly lower than the CEC’s May forecast of 15.589 million tonnes.

Estimates ranged from 15.3 million to 15.72 million tonnes.

The crop is expected to consist of 9.182 million tonnes of white maize used mainly for human consumption, and 6.394 million tonnes of yellow maize used mainly in animal feed.

The CEC will give its fifth production forecast for the 2019/2020 summer crops on Thursday.