South Africa pegged its maize area estimate to its lowest level since the 1940s on Tuesday, saying farmers had sown 2.56 million hectares - in line with estimates by market players polled by Reuters.
Scorched by one of South Africa's worst droughts in the last 80 years, many farmers, particularly in eastern portions of the maize triangle, have planted less maize and at a later date than usual. The figure is well down on the 3.18 million hectares grown last year.
Also on Tuesday, the committee said in its sixth production estimate that 1.428 million tonnes of wheat would be produced in the 2003/04 season, fractionally down from the last month's 1.426 million.
"The plantings are down because of the very dry spell in the maize belt between November and Christmas and low prices during the early season which forced farmers to switch to other crops," chairman of the National Crop Estimates Committee, Rodney Dredge, told Reuters.
He added that the figure was the lowest since the 1940s.
In its first forecast of the 2003/04 planting season, the committee said the area of white maize planted was likely to total 1.67 million hectares, while the forecast for the yellow variety stood at 892,000 hectares.
Traders said they were happy with the estimate but were not surprised. The figure tallied with a Reuters' poll of nine traders and analysts last week, which predicted a maize area of 2.6 million hectares.
The poll also pegged South Africa's output at 6.8 million tonnes in the 2003/04, well down from the 9.39 million tonnes produced last year. The committee's first output forecast and second planting area forecast will be released on February 19.
In futures trading on Tuesday, the benchmark March white maize contract lost the maximum possible on a single day - 45 rand, to close at 1,307 rand a tonne - after heavy rain dampened drought fears and the rand held steady around the 7.27/dollar mark.
It was the second successive 45-rand drop following a fortnight of surging prices that took the maize price to just shy of 1,400 rand on the back of the rand's slide and hot, cloudless weather.
Also on Tuesday, the South African Grain Information Service said 22,754 tonnes of white maize, and 3,473 tonnes of yellow maize, was exported from South Africa in the week to January 16.