South Africa crops committee raises maize forecast 1.4 percent

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa will likely harvest 7.26 million tonnes of maize in 2016, up 1.4 percent from the previous estimate as yellow maize yields increased, a government agency said on Wednesday. The forecast by the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC), its seventh this season, was 27.1 percent lower than the 9.95 million tonnes reaped last year because of drought and late plantings. The CEC's estimate was 2.5 percent higher than a Reuters' poll of traders and market analysts that pegged the harvest forecast at 7.08 million tonnes. The crop will comprise an estimated 3.09 million tonnes of white maize - unchanged from the previous forecast - and 4.16 million tonnes of yellow, an increase of 2.5 percent from the last estimate, the CEC said. Futures prices for white maize, the staple crop, doubled in price last year, helping to fuel inflation. The July white maize contract closed 0.87 percent higher on Wednesday at 4,279 rand a tonne, 20 percent below its historic peak of around 5,400 rand a tonne scaled in January, according to Thomson Reuters' data. (Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Ed Stoddard)