April 25, 2008

South Africa ups corn output forecast to 11 million tonnes

South Africa Thursday (April 24, 2008) lifted its 2007-08 corn output forecast by 2.2 percent to 11 million tonnes from the 10.76 million tonnes released in March.

The crop area was unchanged at 2.80 million hectares, but yield per hectare was revised upwards by 2.2 percent to 3.93 tonnes, according to data from the Department of Agriculture's Crop Estimates Committee.

The crop consists of 4.5 million tonnes of yellow corn - which was increased by 3.1 percent on last month's forecast - and 6.5 million tonnes of white corn, which was revised upwards by 1.5 percent on last month.

Baldwin Netshifhefhe, principal statistician at CEC, said the reason for the increase was continued favorable weather conditions across the country's corn triangle.