Indian wheat production is forecast to increase by as much as 11% in 2017 to hit just under 100m tonnes. Indian farmers have planted 32m acres in wheat this planting season, which is the highest acreage planted on record in the country.

China looks set to ban all imports of UK poultry following the outbreak of bird flu on farms in England and Wales in the last week. Poultry production in the UK is extremely intensive, with close to 900m birds produced annually, many of which are destined for export markets.

This year’s agriculture census from Defra shows the UK sheep flock grew by 2% in 2016 to reach just under 34m head. The number of lambs in the UK grew by 2% to 17m head, while ewe numbers were also up 2% year-on-year to more than 16m head. Wales showed the largest increase in sheep numbers – up 4% year-on-year.

US milk production increased 2.4% year-on-year to almost 7.5bn litres. This brings US milk production in the first 11 months of 2016 to a cumulative 85bn litres, which is 1.8% ahead of last year. Milk production for the full year in the US is on course to hit 93bn litres.