August 28, 2013

South Africa raises 2013 corn forecast

Citing better yields from the yellow corn variety, South Africa has raised its forecast of corn output for 2013 to 11.513 million tonnes from the 11.394 million tonnes expected in its previous forecast.

The corn crop will consist of an estimated 5.580 million tonnes of white corn and 5.933 million tonnes of yellow corn, the government's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said.

The estimate was lower than market expectations of 11.22 million tonnes, according to a poll.

The CEC also said that South African wheat farmers are likely to produce 1.785 million tonnes this year, compared with 1.87 million tonnes last year.