Copa-Cogeca released new EU-28 cereals estimates for the 2014/15 marketing year today, showing good winter sowings, though the growing season is still in its early stages.

The estimates were released on Friday at a meeting of Copa-Cogeca's Cereals Working Party. At the meeting, many Member States reported a positive crop situation due to the mild winter this year and good winter sowings.

Despite uncertainty about the planting season for maize, the overall area should be stable with EU grain production estimated to rise by 1.5 percent compared to last year, and a slight improvement seen for wheat area sowings.

The UK situation was also positive, despite the severe floods. But for some countries (including Spain) it remains too early to build a clear picture, so figures are still cautious for the EU as a whole.

There were also concerns that durum wheat plantings are down despite good climatic conditions in Southern and Eastern regions. Baltic states are meanwhile facing a huge rate of winter kill (around 80 percent) and are looking for available spring seed varieties. Working party chair Max Schulman from Finland called for a balance sheet on seeds for cereals, oilseeds and pulses to be set up.

Schulman welcomed the overall positive crop situation, but underlined that it is still too early in the season to be certain that the EU crop's potential will be achieved.

In addition to winter kill issues in the South-East, there are concerns about dry periods in some parts of Europe, and frost kill still may appear in the Nordic area.

The working group said there is still also uncertainty if cereal producers will have sufficient cash flow to cover increasing input costs, such as fertilizer and plant protection products. The party chair added that the poor economical situation is putting pressure on growers.

Nevertheless, according to Copa-Cogeca's provisional estimates, EU-28 soft wheat production is estimated to climb by 2.7 percent to 136.199 million tonnes this year, barley production to drop slightly by 0.4 percent . See Copa-Cogeca website for details.