March 7, 2007

Italy wheat output may be up in 2007
 

Italy should raise wheat output this year after farmers planted more grain, encouraged by last year's high prices, the chairman of Milan's cereals bourse said on Tuesday (March 6).

The result will be a fall in wheat purchases by Italy, which relies on imports to cover about half its needs and usually buys standard quality wheat from France and Germany.

Associazione Granaria di Milano Chairman Enrico Ferrario  said the country has planted 20 percent more wheat than last year, thus more production and less importation is expected.

Ferrario said it was too early to make precise forecasts.

Italy's biggest farmers group Coldiretti expects stable wheat output this year as an estimated 10-17 percent rise in the area planted to soft and durum wheat was likely to be offset by a possible 25-30 percent fall in yields due to warm weather.

Some traders at the bourse cited growing concerns about the quality of Italy's new wheat crop as a very warm and dry winter had disrupted germination and made grain vulnerable to disease and climate changes.

Ferrario said Italy might reduce imports of standard quality wheat from France this year if domestic crops increased, but would have to import high-protein wheat from the United States, Germany and Austria, as it usually does.

Ferrario said wheat prices would rise this year but not as much as in 2006, when they soared 30-40 percent.

Italian statistics agency ISTAT has estimated last year's soft wheat output at 3.124 million tonnes and durum wheat output at 4.089 million, down from 3.298 million and 4.567 million tonnes respectively.