South Africa's maize output seen up

South Africa's maize output is likely to rise by 13 percent this year as higher prices boost plantings of the staple grain, the government said on Tuesday. Africa's biggest maize producer would harvest 11.7 million tonnes of the maize in the current 2011/12 production season, compared with 10.36 million tonnes in the last season, the Crop Estimates Committee said.
The 2011/12 crop will consist of an estimated 6.8 million tonnes of white maize and 4.9 million tonnes of yellow, the CEC said in its first production forecast for the season.