EU harvest adds to the global wheat dilemma

The winter crop harvest is winding down across much of Europe, despite the challenges presented by weather extremes that have hampered field activities in several countries - and played havoc with crop quality. Harvest rains and quality issues have been observed across most of France, the western parts of Germany and large parts of Poland. The wet weather extended further west into Belarus, and south as far as northern Italy. But the impact on crop quality was not as drastic. In the north of the continent, a hotter than usual July in Sweden, the Baltic states and Finland affected grain filling of spring and winter cereal crops, as soil moisture ran out early. According to last week's European Commission (EC) crop update, soft wheat production is forecast at 127.2 million tonnes, which was down from 127.7 million tonnes in July. This was on the back of a slight reduction in yield from an average of 6.05 tonnes per hectare to 5.98t/ha. But this yield is still 7.9 per cent above the ...