The corn harvest in South Africa, the continent’s biggest producer, was probably 9.1 percent lower this year than 12 months earlier, BlackSeaGrain quoted a Bloomberg survey.

Growers produced 11.7 million metric tons of the grain, according to the median estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The range was 11.55 million tons to 11.8 million tons. This compares with the 12.1 million tons harvested last year, Marda Scheepers, a spokeswoman for the government’s Crop Estimates Committee, said, adding that the Pretoria-based committee will release the data on Nov. 29.

In 2010, South Africa produced 12.8 million tons of corn, the biggest crop since 1982. Meal made from the white variety is one of the country’s staple foods and the yellow type is mainly used as animal feed.