South Africa’s Wheat Harvest Progressing Smoothly

of this new marketing year. This crop was planted at the beginning of May 2025. This volume delivered so far equals 47% of South Africa’s expected 2025-26 wheat harvest of 2.03 million tonnes. The expected harvest is up 5% from the 2024-25 season. The annual improvement is boosted by the expected better harvest in the Northern Cape, Free State, Eastern Cape, and Limpopo. The Western Cape, which accounts for over half of South Africa’s winter wheat production, is expected to experience a mild decline in the harvest this year compared to the 2024-25 season due to unfavourable weather conditions in some parts of the province. When the Crop Estimates Committee reviewed the harvest this week, they left the wheat production estimate roughly unchanged from last month (down just 0.3%). As I noted in my previous letters, the potential wheat harvest of 2.03 million tonnes implies that South Africa may need to import approximately 1.74 million tonnes in the 2025-26 season to meet our annual ...