South Africa further increased its forecast for the country's biggest maize crop in almost 30 years but said on Thursday that heavy rains had prevented a still higher assessment of the crop and slowed harvesting. South Africa - the continent's biggest maize producer - is expecting its largest crop of the grain since the record 14.42 million tonnes reaped in the 1981/82 season.
The government's Crop Estimate Committee (CEC) raised its maize crop output forecast for the 2009/10 season to 13.317 million tonnes from 13.10 million tonnes in its previous estimate. The maize crop will consist of around 7.999 million tonnes of white maize and 5.318 million tonnes of the yellow variety, which is mainly used for stock feed, the CEC said.
"Excessive rains is hampering the harvesting of the crop, so a better indication will be next month," a CEC spokeswoman told Reuters. The harvest forecast was higher than market expectations of 13.25 million tonnes, according to a Reuters poll.
Traders said indications are that South Africa is on track for a good crop but the wet weather will reduce the quality of the grains in some areas. The CEC raised the yield for white maize to 4.65 tonnes/ha compared with the previous forecast of 4.57 tonnes/ha, while the yield for yellow maize is also seen up at 5.20 tonnes/ha against 5.13 tonnes previously.
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