South Africa's maize planting area down 3%
Area devoted to yellow maize for feed up 1.9%
28 January 2023
1 minute read
By: South African farmers are expected to plant maize over an area 3% smaller than last year, Reuters reported, citing the government's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) on Thursday.
The CEC forecast a 6.3% drop in the area planted for white maize, and a 1.9% increase in the area planted for yellow maize. Overall farmers were expected to plant 2.544 million hectares of maize, down from 2.623 million hectares the previous year.
Typically, white maize is grown for human consumption, while yellow corn is grown for livestock feed.
In 2021/2022, South Africa produced approximately 15.3 million metric tons of maize. Of that, 2.868 million metric tons was exported.
