October 28, 2009

South African farmers intend to plant 2.57 million hectares of corn in the 2009-10 season, compared with the previous season's 2.43 million hectares, the Crop Estimates Committee said Tuesday (October 27).

White corn is expected to be planted on 1.65 million hectares, and yellow corn on 927,500 hectares.

The 2009-10 planting area had been expected to be reduced by about 128,000 hectares, a poll of four traders by I-Net Bridge had predicted.

The CEC said farmers expect plantings of sunflower seed to fall by 29 percent and sorghum by 18 percent compared with the previous season. The intended plantings of soy, groundnuts and dry beans showed increases of 14 percent, 16 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.