The crop will comprise an estimated 3.097 million tonnes of white maize and 4.063 million tonnes of yellow, the CEC said.
A hawker prepares a cob of corn at his makeshift shop in Soweto, January 27, 2016. S .
South Africa will likely
harvest 7.16 million tonnes of maize in 2016, unchanged from a previous
estimate as weather conditions remained stable, a government agency said
on Tuesday.
The forecast by the Crop Estimates
Committee (CEC), its sixth of this season, was 28 percent lower than the
9.95 million tonnes reaped last year because of drought and late
plantings.
The CEC's estimate was slightly higher
than a Reuters' poll of traders and market analysts that pegged the
harvest at 7.11 million tonnes thanks to recent improvements in rains in
the drought-hit grain belt.
"In terms of the
information we had on the table, it didn't validate any change on the
estimate, it supported the estimate as it stands," said CEC analyst Marda Scheepers.
The crop will comprise an estimated 3.097 million tonnes of white maize and 4.063 million tonnes of yellow, the CEC said.
White
maize, the staple source of calories in Africa's most industrialised
country, doubled in price last year helping to fuel inflation after
South Africa in 2015 experienced its lowest rainfall levels since
records began in 1904.
The July white maize
contract closed 0.25 percent lower on Tuesday at 4,676 rand a tonne,
compared to its historic peak of almost 5,400 rand a tonne scaled in
January, according to Thomson Reuters' data.
The CEC said that the warmer weather and rainfall during April and May had helped to maintain the crop yield.
"Usually
there would be some frost that would have a negative impact on the
crops but at this stage, from May to June, it's as if the weather
conditions are on par," said CEC senior statistician Rona Beukes.
A
powerful El Nino system and other weather patterns combined to trigger a
historic drought in southern Africa with an estimated 31.6 million
people across the region struggling to feed themselves, according to the
International Federation of Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies.