World cereal production for 2023–2024 season is forecast at record levels in 2021

FAO's forecast for global cereal production in 2023 has been revised down by 4 million tonnes from its July forecast. Despite this month's downward revision, global cereal production could be 0.9 percent higher than the previous season's level at 2,815 million tonnes, matching 2021's record. The bulk of this month's downward adjustment comes from a cut in the global wheat production forecast from the July forecast by 2.2 million tons to 781.1 million tons. Thus, global wheat production is expected to fall 2.6 percent from last year's level, which would still be the second-highest output on record. The most significant downgrade in the forecast is that production in Canada and the European Union is lower than earlier forecasts due to dry weather conditions that have led to lower harvests. Due to deteriorating crop prospects due to heavy rains in a number of key production regions in China, the forecast for wheat production in that country was also lowered, although to a lesser ...