Farming News - EU wheat fares well in Cocerol estimate

EU wheat fares well in Cocerol estimate

The EU soft wheat output will come in around 2 million tonnes higher than previously estimated, according to a release by EU grain-industry lobby group Coceral.  Coceral raised its forecast for EU grains for a second time, bringing the current estimate higher than was predicted in June. image expired

It put the wheat crop at 128.4m tonnes this year; the new estimate, much better than the 126.5m tonnes tons forecast in June, puts the EU wheat crop higher than last year’s, after both France and the UK’s harvests fared better than expected.

However, Strategie Grains cut its estimate for EU soft wheat by 200,000t. The cut still leaves the estimate at 129m tonnes. Strategie said milling wheat quality is down, after rains in Germany, Poland and Scandinavia affected the harvest.

In its report, Cocerol also raised the estimate for the corn crop by 15 percent to 63 million metric tons this year, on excellent results from France and Romania. The Brussels-based lobby group’s estimates are higher than the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the International Grains Council (IGC), which forecast EU corn output at 61 million tons and 61.4 million tons, respectively.

Coceral predicted a rise in sunflower production, but said oilseed rape would be down overall in the EU; Germany’s harvest was dogged by weather setbacks, which contributed to the drop in production and saw France take over as the EU’s largest oilseed rape producer. The German harvest fell by 31 per cent this year.  

The UK recorded a bumper oilseed rape crop this year, which prevailed despite fears about the effects of dry weather early on in the growing season. However, the variability of the wheat harvest led Coceral to report that Spain had overtaken the UK as the EU's fourth-ranked grain grower. Spain follows France, Germany and Poland, after successful barley, corn and wheat crops saw it move up in the ranking.