ROMANIA obtained the EU's second-largest maize crop after France with an overall output of 9m tonnes, official data showed on Friday.

Romania, which ranks first in terms of sown acreage in the bloc, had originally expected to reap 9.4m tones from 2.3m hectare acreage against an output of 7.9m tonnes in 2009.

Russia may harvest 80m tonnes of grain next year after a severe drought cut the country's output to 60.3m tonnes in 2010 from 97m in 2009 and 102 in 2008, a leading analyst said on Friday.

"The 2011 crop will be below average, but still better than this year after the drought," Andrei Sizov Senior, President and chief executive of SovEcon agricultural analysts told Reuters.  "It will be around 80m tonnes."