Due to the drought that caused delays in planting corn in the current marketing year 2018/2019 in South Africa, this crop is likely to be harvested 15 percent less than last year.

The Government Crop Counting Committee (CEC), which is due to submit its third crop production forecast for 2018/2019 on April 25, estimates crop yields of 10.6 million tons, compared to 12.510 million tons in the 2017/2018 season.

It is expected that the harvest in 2019 will consist of 5.447 million tons of food basic white corn and 5.266 million tons of yellow corn, which is mainly used as animal feed.

Paul Makube, senior economist for agriculture at the first National Bank, said that although there were droughts in some key regions of the Free State province and in the north-west of the country where corn is grown, production conditions were generally favorable for most areas by the end of the season.

According to the economist, frost damage, which has not yet been reported, can still affect yields in some parts of the Free State province and in some northwestern provinces.