Maize forecast up 1.04% to 11.5m tons

The white maize forecast fell 2.9% to 5.580m tons‚ but the yellow variety rose 5.1% to 5.9m tons.

The committee said the upward revision in total maize output was based on actual producer deliveries as reported by the South African Grain Information Service and better yields obtained for the yellow maize crop.

Meanwhile‚ hectares of wheat planted for the 2013 season have been adjusted upwards to 525‚500ha from 515‚200ha last year.

The production forecast for wheat is 1.784m tons‚ a decrease of 4.6% compared with the previous forecast of 1.870m tons.

The production estimate for sunflower was down 1.7% to 566‚600 tons a decrease of 1.7% compared with the previous forecast of 576‚500 tons but soya-beans were unchanged at 787‚100 tons.

The expected groundnut crop was also unchanged at 42‚300 tons and the production forecast for sorghum was 154‚494 tons‚ which is 5.8% less than the previous forecast of 164‚069 tons.

In the case of dry beans‚ the production forecast is unchanged at 60‚200 tons.