SOUTH African agricultural company Senwes said on Wednesday the maize harvest in its area was a month behind schedule, but that the grain quality was high. South Africa expects the 2000/01 harvest to be 7,193-million tons compared to last season’s bumper 10,1-million tons. ”The reason for the delay is the lack of cold weather. If there is no frost the plant keeps on living and the cob doesn’t dry out,” Booyens said. ”The cold weather stayed away for an unseasonably long time, it rained two weeks ago and then there was some snow last week, so everything has been delayed.” OTK, a big agricultural company in eastern South Africa, said about 80% of its maize had been delivered to silos and the crop should be fully harvested in the next two weeks. OTK said the quality of maize was the ”best ever”. – Reuters