Reuters – The European Commission on May 28 sharply lowered its forecast for common wheat production in the European Union’s 27 member countries in 2020-21 to 121.5 million tonnes from 125.8 million estimated a month ago.
That would be seven per cent below estimated EU-27 production of common wheat, or soft wheat, of 130.8 million tonnes in 2019-20, the commission’s monthly supply-and-demand data showed.
The commission did not give reasons for its reduced wheat harvest forecast but it followed last week’s cut by the EU’s crop monitoring service to its yield outlook due to unusually dry, warm weather this spring.
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The commission reduced its projection of EU-27 exports of common wheat for the 2020-21 season that starts in July to 26.5 million tonnes from 28 million previously.
That was down sharply from the EU’s latest forecast for 2019-20 common wheat exports of 32.5 million tonnes, up slightly from a previous projection of 32.3 million, the data showed.
The commission raised slightly its forecast of EU-27 barley output in 2020-21 to 56.2 million tonnes from 56.1 million, while increasing more sharply its EU-27 maize production outlook, to 71.4 million tonnes from 69.5 million.
In oilseeds, expected EU-27 rapeseed production in 2020-21 was reduced to 15.6 million tonnes from 16.45 million projected a month earlier.
That brought the expected harvest closer to last year’s particularly poor crop of 15.25 million tonnes.
