South African maize farmers intend to plant 6 percent more hectares of the staple grain in the 2018/2019 season, the official Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said on Thursday.
Farmers are expected to plant 2.448 million hectares of maize next season compared to 2.318 million hectares planted for the 2017/2018 when yields were affected by unfavourable weather conditions at the start of the season.
The forecast was marginally lower than a Reuters poll anticipating 2.469 million hectares of maize to be sowed.
Planting of staple white maize is seen at 1.373 hectares while yellow maize is seen at 1.075 hectares.
The CEC estimated that farmers will plant 49 percent more sorghum at 43 thousand hectares and 4 percent less sunflower seed at 575 thousand hectares compared with the previous season.
“The reason is the crop rotation of all the summer crops. Some farmers are going from sun flower to dry beans and sorghum,” the CEC said.
The white maize futures contract due in March was at 2,420 rand down 54 percent from its peak of 5,376 rand a tonne hit in January 2016 following a historic drought.
