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 percent 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 percent 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.
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