SA, the continent’s biggest maize grower, will probably increase its forecast for a bumper crop of the staple grain for a third time in 2017 as yields continue to beat expectations. Growers may reap 14.65-million tonnes of maize in 2017, according to the median estimate of three analysts and traders surveyed by Bloomberg. That compares with the 14.54-million tonnes forecast on April 25 by the government’s Crop Estimates Committee, and would be the country’s second-largest harvest on record, only just trailing 1981’s 14.66-million tonnes. The committee was due to update its forecast on May 26. SA’s maize harvest is expected to rebound sharply from last season’s nine-year low, after rainfall increased following the worst drought since records began in 1904. Grain SA said last week that it projected a 3.6-million-tonne maize surplus in 2017. "Harvest is under way in many areas of SA with yields reportedly well above average, which confirms that we are in for a big crop this season," sa...
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