S.Africa’s final 2022 corn crop at 15.4m mt, soybeans at 2.2m mt

South Africa’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) published its final 2022 crops release Thursday, placing the country’s corn production figure at 15.47 million mt, up just 82,800 mt from its last estimate.

The corn crop consists of 7.85 million mt of white corn and 7.62 million mt of yellow corn harvested from 2.62 million ha, with yields last reported at 5.87 mt/ha.

The crop of 2022 showed a little decline after the 2021 bumper harvest of 16.31 million mt, cut from a slightly bigger area of 2.75 million ha.

South African Grain Information Service (Sagis) also reported a total of 14.56 million mt of corn delivered by producers, with 337,143 mt expected for delivery in January-February.

In terms of oilseeds, the CEC set the country’s soybean final crop size above its last estimate, placing the volume at 2.23 million mt, harvested from 925,300 ha.

The figure is 17.5% higher than last year’s crop size of 1.89 million mt.

Sunflower seeds production was finalized at 845,550 mt, unchanged from the last estimate and up 25% year-on-year, coming from planted areas of 670,700 mt.

Sorghum production was halved in 2022 amid smaller planted areas and lower yields, with farmers harvesting just 103,140 mt from 37,200 ha.

The CEC will publish its next outlook on February 28, covering the winter crops production forecast as well as revised areas and the first production forecast for summer crops of 2023.