The CEC, which gave its fourth estimate for the 2018/2019 season, estimated production at 10.900 million tonnes compared with 12.510 million tonnes harvested in the previous year.

The harvest is expected to consist of 5.488 million tonnes of the food staple white maize and 5.412 million tonnes of yellow maize used mainly in animal feed, the CEC said.

The estimate was higher than the Reuters survey of six traders and market analysts which pegged the harvest at 10.7 million tonnes.