May 29, 2008
South Africa sees improved prospects for 2008-09 corn
The South African government Wednesday (May 28, 2008) lifted its forecast for corn output for the 2008-09 (May-April) crop year by 3 percent to 11.3 million tonnes from the 11 million tonnes predicted last month, in line with I-Net Bridge's consensus forecast.
Corn acreage was unchanged at 2.8 million hectares, but the yield per hectare was revised upwards to 4.05 tonnes/hectare from 3.93 tonnes/hectare, according to a survey by the Department of Agriculture's Crop Estimates Committee.
"Some farmers in some areas are recording their best-ever yield," said Rona Beukes, a committee member, adding that the yield was boosted by favourable weather conditions across the country's corn heartlands.
The crop consists of 4.6 million tonnes of yellow corn which was up 3.6 percent on last month's forecast and 6.7 million tonnes of white corn, which was revised upwards by 2.6 percent on last month's estimate.
The yield for white corn, which is planted on 1.7 million hectares, is 3.85 tonnes/hectare and in the case of yellow corn, the yield on the 1.06 million hectares planted is expected to average 4.36 tonnes/hectare.
"The expected corn crop could be slightly higher, but this will only be determined during the June forecast when 30-50 percent of the crop will have been harvested," the committee said in a statement.
Analysts polled by I-Net Bridge expected the committee to raise the crop to 11.3 million tonnes with views ranging from 11 million tonnes to 11.6 million tonnes.
The CEC further released its forecast for sunflower, which was revised upwards by 6.6 percent to 837,719 tonnes. The estimated area planted to sunflower seed remained unchanged at 564,300 hectares, while the yield is 1.48 tonnes/hectare.
Other crops for the summer season were soy at 319,495 tonnes, which is 5.71 percent more than the previous forecast, groundnut at 85,360 tonnes, up 3.86 percent on the previous forecast, sorghum at 270,455 tonnes, up 5.65 percent on last month's forecast.
