SA’s final 2023 maize harvest seen 6.2% higher than previous year

South Africa produced 6.2% more maize in the 2022/2023 season compared with the previous season, the Crop Estimates Liaison Committee (CELC) said on Thursday.

The CELC’s final summer crop estimates put the 2023 harvest at 16.43 million tonnes, up from the 15.47 million tonnes harvested the season before. The CELC figures are marginally higher than the final estimate by the government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) of 16.40 million tonnes, published on November 28.

According to the CELC, the harvest consists of 8.5 million tonnes of white maize, used for human consumption, and 7.93 million tonnes of yellow maize, used mainly in animal feed.