August 28, 2008

South Africa Wednesday raised its 2007-2008 corn output forecast by 400,000 tonnes to 12.02 million tonnes.

The crop area was unchanged at 2.80 million hectares, according to a survey conducted by the Department of Agriculture's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC).

The crop consists of 7.09 million tonnes of white and 4.9 million tonnes of yellow corn.

An average estimate of four traders and analysts polled by I-Net Bridge expected the committee to raise the crop to 12.04 million tonnes with expectations ranging from 11.8 million tonnes to 12.6 million tonnes.

The CEC said favourable weather conditions in South Africa and a better-than-expected harvest prompted an upward revision in its forecast.

In other crops, the CEC said the revised area planted to wheat was 748,300 hectares, which is lower than 752,500 hectares predicted last month, but larger than the 632,000 hectares planted last month.

Wheat production is expected to be 2.185 million tonnes, slightly more than 2007's production of 1.905 million tonnes.