From July to September 2025, CropWatch revised the monitoring results of maize planted area, yield per hectare, and production for the four major maize-producing countries (the United States, China, India, and Ukraine) using the latest remote sensing data. The results indicate that the overall average yield per hectare of these four countries remained stable, but the planted area increased from 2024, resulting in a total production of 756 million tons, a 4.4% increase compared to the previous year. However, significant variations among the four major maize-producing countries were observed (Table 1.1).

The total maize planted area in the four major producing countries reached 92.449 million hectares, a year-on-year increase of 1.5%. The average yield increased by 2.9% year-on-year, reaching 8,179 kg/ha, leading to a total production increase of 4.3%. By country, the United States saw a 5.3% year-on-year increase in maize planted area, with favorable production conditions in main producing regions. The yield per hectare increased by 3.4% year-on-year, resulting in a significant 8.9% increase in total maize production. In Ukraine, abundant spring rainfall supported production, leading to a slight increase in yield per hectare and a 7.1% year-on-year increase in total production, reaching 43.73 million tons, the highest since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In China, the maize area decreased slightly by 0.4%. However, continuous rainy weather during the summer harvest in regions such as the Huang-Huai-Hai and North China led to insufficient grain filling, causing the yield per hectare to fall below the August prediction and 2024 yield, reducing the national maize production to 266.02 million tons, a 0.6% year-on-year decrease. India also experienced declines in both planted area and yield per hectare, with total production falling to 41.74 million tons, a 5.6% year-on-year decrease, making it the country with the largest reduction in production.

Overall, despite slight declines in maize production in China and India, the production are favorable in the United States, Ukraine. Other major maize-producing countries in the Northern Hemisphere remained generally normal, with global maize production in 2025 above 2024, approaching 1.2 billion tons.

Table 1.1 Maize production of four major producing countries in Northern Hemisphere (as of October 2025)