The European Commission has lowered its forecast for soft wheat stocks in the EU, mainly due to an increase in the forecast for wheat consumption in the production of livestock feed, Reuters reports.
In particular, in their updated forecast, the experts estimated the grain stocks in the current season at 18.3 mln tonnes, compared to 19.1 mln tonnes in the previous estimate. At the same time, analysts raised the forecast of feed wheat demand in 2023/24 MY by 1 mln tonnes, due to both sufficient wheat stocks and reduced oat production this season.
The forecasted export of soft wheat to the EU this season remained unchanged at 31 mln tonnes.
It is also noted that barley production in the EU countries in the season-2023/24 may reach a 12-year low of 46.9 million tons compared to 47.5 million tons forecasted in October, which will be due to drought in Spain and the Scandinavian countries, which are the main producers of this grain.
The corn harvest estimate for the current season remains unchanged at 59.9 million tons.
As for oilseeds, the forecast of rapeseed production in 2023/24 MY was raised to 19.9 mln tonnes against 19.8 mln tonnes a month earlier, which is the record high for the last nine years.
Source: Apkinform