European traders reduce their EU harvest forecast by almost 7 Mt due to the drought

In its third forecast for the 2023 harvest, COCERAL considers that the total cereal harvest in the EU-27 + United Kingdom will be 296.7 Mt, a figure lower than the 303.5 Mt of the March forecast, but higher than the 291.1 Mt harvested in 2022. The main reason for the downward revision of the harvest forecasts is the current drought in the northern half of the EU. Crop expectations have been lowered considerably in Sweden, Denmark and the Baltic countries. Production in Germany and Spain, where the current rains came too late for wheat and barley, has also been revised downward. Soft wheat production is forecast at 142.4 Mt, down from 144.5 Mt in the last forecast and 142.5 Mt in 2022. Barley production could reach 56.6 Mt, below the previous forecast of 59.6 Mt and 59.3 Mt in 2022. The corn crop now stands at 61.3 Mt, up from 62.3 Mt previously forecast and 52.5 Mt last year. Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy will have much larger harvests, after the 2022 harvest was affected ...