Maize harvest activity is gaining momentum across the country

• The maize harvest activity is gaining momentum across the country, largely supported by favourable weather conditions. The progress is reflected in the volumes delivered to commercial silos which amounted to 845 630 tonnes in the week of 22 June 2018, up by 10 percent from the previous week.
• About 59 percent of this was yellow maize, with 41 percent being white maize. Overall maize deliveries for the initial eight weeks of the 2018/19 marketing year are estimated at 3.1 million tonnes, which equates to 23 percent of the estimated harvest for the season.
• More maize will be delivered in the coming weeks as the expected cool and drier weather conditions during the next two weeks could provide conditions conducive for the harvest activity, particularly in the early planted areas in the eastern and central parts of the South African maize-belt.
• To reiterate a point made in our previous note, the National Crop Estimate Committee lifted its forecast for South Africa’s 2017/18 maize production by 2 percent from last month to 13.2 million tonnes. Of this, 6.9 million tonnes are white maize, with yellow maize at 6.3 million tonnes. Meanwhile, subsistence farmers’ maize production forecast (white and yellow) was left unchanged from last month, currently at 593 975 tonnes.
• Furthermore, with the domestic annual maize need estimated at 10.8 million tonnes, at the back of expected 13.2 million tonnes of production, with an opening stock of 3.7 million tonnes, South Africa could see exports exceeding 2.5 million tonnes in the 2018/19 marketing year which ends on April 2019. Fortunately, the regional maize demand could be solid this season given that a number of countries are expecting a lower harvest.

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