In the August report, Stratégie Grains lowered the forecast of soft wheat production in the EU in 2023/24 MY by 1.4 mln tonnes compared to the previous year – to 124.7 mln tonnes, down from 125.3 mln tonnes.
Experts explain the downward adjustments by disappointing yields in France and Germany due to hot and dry weather in spring. Also, the harvest in Croatia was lower than expected. Rains in Scandinavia, the Baltic States and Poland are also a concern, as they not only slowed down the harvest but also worsened grain quality.
Nevertheless, in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, weather conditions were favourable for the crops.
At the same time, due to lower than initially expected yields in southeastern Europe, the corn harvest forecast was lowered by 2.1 million tonnes per month to 58.7 million tonnes (52.1 million tonnes in 2022/23 MY). The recent rains in Poland, northern France and Germany have brought some relief to the corn crop and are likely to stop further deterioration of the crop.
The forecast for barley production was raised by 0.1 million tonnes to 47.2 million tonnes (51.3 million tonnes a year earlier). High grain yields are reported in Romania and are generally satisfactory in Central Europe, but fell short of expectations in other EU countries.
Source: Apkinform