South Africa cut its estimate of next season's maize harvest area by 19 percent on Monday, as farmers said they would plant about half the amount of land compared to last year amid drought fears.
The Crop Estimates Committee said maize farmers plan to plant a total of 1.372 million hectares, down from the previous estimate of 1.699 million hectares, going against traders' predictions that it would rise slightly or stay unchanged.
But traders said a lot had happened since the survey was carried out a month ago and producers could still be encouraged to plant more after recent rains and prices hovering near 12-month peaks.
"Since the first intentions to plant the price moved up roughly 200-300 rand...Rain forecasts are also looking quite good for the next week. Farmers should plant at least relatively more," one broker said.
"I think two million hectares will be realised."
The market had expected hectarage of 1.83 million, according to an average of estimates from six trading houses polled by Reuters. Last year farmers planted 2.93 million hectares.
Estimates Committee chairman Rodney Dredge said dry weather at the time when the poll was conducted and financial difficulties were behind the drop.
"It's dry conditions in the production areas, the inability of farmers to get finance, production credit and then large maize surpluses which have depressed the prices," he said.
Farmers had complained over the past season that bearish fundamentals were making it hard for them to stay profitable.
But prices soared to nearly 1,000 rand as rains failed to materialise at the start of the summer rainfall season in September.
South Africa's December white maize contract slipped by 13 rand to 938 rand a tonne. The data was released after the market closed at noon.
The committee also lowered its wheat output forecast based on dry weather concerns, to 1.835 million tonnes from a previous prediction of 1.851 million tonnes.
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