SA’s 2020 maize harvest expectations slightly lower than previous month

South Africa will likely harvest 15.514 million maize in 2020, slightly lower than the estimate in the previous month after yellow maize yields dropped in two provinces, the government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said on Thursday.

In May, the CEC had pegged this year’s crop at 15.589 million tonnes.

Yellow maize yields were lower in Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces, the committee said as it published its fifth production forecast for the 2020 crop.

The crop will however still be 38% higher compared to the 11.275 million tonnes harvested in the previous year when yields were impacted by dry weather conditions.

The crop is forecast to consist of 6.439 million tonnes of yellow maize, used mainly in animal feed, compared to the previous months estimate of 6.515 million tonnes.

Estimates for white maize, used for human consumption, remained unchanged at 9.075 million tonnes.

The CEC’s estimate is slightly lower than the result of a Reuters survey, based on an average of estimates from five traders and analysts, that the pegged the harvest at 15.574 million tonnes.