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Total cereal production for 2018 is expected to be at 284.3m tonnes, a decrease of 5% compared to 2017/18 and a decrease of 8% compared to the last five-year average, the report published last Wednesday says.
This follows the European farm organisation Copa Cogeca’s estimate that the harvest would be back by 12%.
The Commission says that the EU wheat harvest has suffered the most from this summer’s dry conditions, leading to a decrease of 9% compared to 2017. The wheat production forecast is set at 129m tonnes for 2018.
While weather became more favourable from mid-August in parts of central and northern Europe, the improvements were too small or came too late to significantly improve the yield outlook for crops in those areas.
According to the JRC MARS Crop monitoring in Europe Bulletin temperatures were still significantly above average (by 2°C to 4°C) in eastern Europe by mid-September. A heatwave occurred at the end of August in southern Hungary and the Black Sea region.
Grain, maize and sunflower crops were affected in some regions of southern Europe.
EU sugar production should be lower than last year’s record levels, forecasted at 19.2m tonnes for 2018/19 compared with 21.1m tonnes for 2017/18.
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