February 3, 2010

South Africa looks forward to bumper corn harvest

Strong rains and a switch from wheat have put South Africa on course for a bumper corn harvest.

South Africa may match the record corn yield of 4.96 tonnes per hectare reached in 2009-10, after the disruptive El Nino weather pattern identified last year failed to deliver the dry weather that many forecasters had expected.

Most of South Africa's grain producing area received good rains during December and January, Dirk Esterhuizen, the USDA's attaché in Pretoria said.

With plantings jumping by 8.2% to 2.63m hectares, commercial production may be on course to rise to 12.5m tonnes, supporting a 25% jump to 2.5m tonnes in exports.