HOW ARE WE DOING?

SA’s maize harvest forecast for this year has been settled at 11.72-million tonnes this month, up 1.8% from last month, the crop estimates committee said yesterday in its final production estimate report for the season. The white maize forecast was left unchanged at 6.58million tonnes but the yellow maize estimate rose 3.5% to 6.14-million tonnes. Maize is a significant input in a vast amount of food production. Better than expected yellow maize yields, and stronger physical deliveries resulted in the upward adjustment. The production estimate for sorghum was lowered by 2.2% to 515,064 tonnes. All the other summer crops were left unchanged, from the previous month. Meanwhile‚ hectares of wheat planted for the 2013 season have been adjusted lower by 3.8% to 505‚500ha, and the production estimate for the crop slipped by 1.5% to 1.75-million tonnes. The International Grain Council said world wheat production would be higher than predicted a month ago on bigger than expected crops in Europe and Morocco.