Johannesburg - South Africa's government raised on Thursday its maize output forecast for 2013 to 11.722 million tonnes from the previous estimate of 11.513 million tonnes, beating market expectations.
The maize crop will consist of an estimated 5.58 million tonnes of white maize and 6.142 million tonnes of yellow, the government's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said.
The harvest estimate was higher than market expectations of 11.5 million tonnes, according to a Reuters poll.
The CEC also said South African wheat farmers are likely to produce 1.758 million tonnes this year, compared with 1.785 million tonnes in previous forecast. - Reuters