South Africa is likely to cut its maize output forecast for the May 2010/April 2011 season as continued wet weather in some parts of the country delay the harvesting process and damage crops, a Reuters survey showed on Tuesday.
The government's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) seventh maize output forecast for the 2010/11 season would come in at 10.63 million tonnes, compared with a previous government forecast of 10.854 million tonnes, according to the average estimates of seven trading houses polled by Reuters.
Traders' forecasts ranged from 10.1 million to 10.8 million tonnes. "(The crop) will be lower because of wet weather problems and damage to the crops," a trader said. Farmers' group Grain SA said last week that harvesters in some provinces were getting stuck in mud and water-logged lands showed very low yield potential. "Due to the unusually wet conditions experienced so far, the harvesting process in certain problem areas is progressing slower than usual," Grain SA chief executive officer Jannie de Villiers said in a statement.
The CEC is due to release its seventh production forecast of this season's summer crops output and revised area planted. It will also publish its first production forecast for winter crops at 1330 GMT on Thursday. South Africa, the continent's biggest maize producer, harvested 12.815 million tonnes of maize in the 2009/10 season, its biggest crop in three decades.
Strong demand from countries outside Africa has so far helped lift local maize prices and a lower harvest could push the prices even higher. The benchmark December white maize futures contract was trading 2.42 percent higher at 2,248 rand $312) a tonne as of 0810 GMT, while yellow maize for delivery in the same month was up 2.44 percent to 2,269 rand a tonne. The prices are inching closer to peaks of over 2,400 rand a tonne reached in July 2008 when global food prices were soaring.
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