Johannesburg - South Africa will hardly change its 2014 maize output forecast, a Reuters survey showed on Thursday, as farmers hold onto crops in the face of prices that have fallen more than 40 percent from record peaks scaled in February.
The government's Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) last month said maize output for 2014 would be 14.307 million tonnes.
Now an average estimate of five trading houses polled by Reuters pegs the crop at 14.39 million tonnes.
“I just can't see how there will be more maize. Prices are low and they are not selling. They are waiting until they can get more,” one trader said.
The CEC said in March a harvest of 13 million tonnes or above would be the largest in more than three decades.
Maize is a staple crop in South Africa and the bumper harvest is a relief for the country after stocks from last year were depleted by large export commitments, putting pressure on prices and fuelling inflation.
South Africa's headline consumer inflation measure quickened to 6.4 percent in August but the central bank has said food price growth is expected to moderate in the coming months, easing the burden on working-class and poor households.
The CEC is due to release its final production forecast of this year's summer crop output on Tuesday. - Reuters