May 25, 2011

South Africa raises its corn harvest estimate by 1%

South Africa, the biggest corn producer on the continent, increased its forecast for this season's total corn harvest by 1%, the government's Crop Estimates Committee said.

South African farmers will probably reap 10.99 million tonnes of the grain this season, up from an earlier forecast of 10.88 million tonnes, spokeswoman Marda Scheepers said. The white corn forecast was raised 1.8% to 6.37 million tonnes and the yellow corn estimate was left unchanged at 4.62 million tonnes, she said.

The Crop Estimates Committee was expected to reduce its forecast to 10.85 million tonnes of corn, according to the median estimate of 13 traders surveyed by Bloomberg. Forecasts ranged from 10.6 million tonnes to 10.9 million tonnes.