Key facts
- The Foreign Agricultural Service forecast a 19% year-on-year decline in South African corn output.
- The agency attributed the forecast decline to reduced plantings and lower yields.
- A July 22, 2026 attache report estimated South Africa's corn crop at a record 18 million metric tons.
The Foreign Agricultural Service, the US Department of Agriculture's overseas attache arm, forecast on November 6, 2026 that South Africa's corn output will fall 19% year on year, citing reduced plantings and lower yields. The forecast was carried in the agency's headline summary of the report.
The same agency's July 22, 2026 South Africa grain and feed update estimated the country was harvesting its largest corn crop on record at 18 million metric tons. That report projected corn area would hold steady and said production would decline modestly from the 2025/26 record, with ample carry-over stocks expected to keep South Africa meeting domestic and regional demand.
The November 6 forecast gives no absolute tonnage, so the size of the crop it implies cannot be established from the report. The agency did not state in the available text what drove the reduced plantings and yields.