SA likely to cut maize forecast - poll
SA will cut its 2016 maize forecast by 2.2 percent as drought continues to impact major producers in the western areas of the grain belt.
|||Johannesburg - South Africa will cut its 2016 maize forecast by 2.2 percent as drought continues to impact major producers in the western areas of the grain belt, a Reuters poll of six traders and market analysts showed on Tuesday.
The government's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC), which will provide its fifth production forecast for the 2016 crop on Thursday, is seen pegging the harvest at 6.9 million tonnes compared with last month's estimate of 7.05 million tonnes.
That would be around 30 percent lower than last year's harvest of 9.95 million tonnes.
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This is mainly because of reduced yields in the North West and the Free State said CJS trader Piet Faure, referring to the two provinces where most of the grain is produced.
The staple white maize doubled in price in 2015 as South Africa experienced the driest year since records began in 1904, with temperatures reaching historic peaks in January.
The July white maize contract was 1.2 percent higher at 4,925 rand a tonne on Tuesday, within striking distance of its historic peak of almost 5,400 rand a tonne scaled in January, according to Thomson Reuters' data.
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Analysts said things could be worse but frost damage has been very limited as the autumn season was fairly mild.
REUTERS