CEC predicts a better maize crop

SOUTH Africa would likely harvest 7.3 million tons of maize this year, 0.5 percent up from the previous estimate as yellow maize yields increases, a government agency said yesterday. The forecast by the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC), its eighth this season, was 26.6 percent lower than the 9.95 million tons reaped last year, due to a severe drought. South Africa had the driest year since records began in 1904. The CEC’s estimate was 1.4 percent higher than a poll of traders and market analysts that pegged the harvest forecast at 7.2 million tons. The crop would comprise an estimated 3.097 million tons of white maize, unchanged of the previous estimate, and 4.199 million tons of yellow, an increase of 0.8 percent from the last estimate. – Reuters