South Africa harvested more corn than expected

Farmers harvested 4.19 million tonnes of white corn, 7.6% more than forecast,
and 3.43 million tonnes of yellow corn, 1.8% more than forecast in September,
the Pretoria-based Crop Estimates
Committee said on its website. The committee missed its aim of
forecasting the crop within 5% of the final total.

The expected decline
in the crop, which is the smallest in a decade and compares with the 11.45
million tons’ harvest of 2005, helped drive up corn prices this year. White
corn, used mainly to make South Africa’s staple food of corn meal, climbed 28%
on the South African Futures Exchange this year while yellow corn, used as
animal feed, jumped 46%.

The sorghum crop of 96,000 tons was 7% bigger
than expected, the committee said.