April 17, 2008

EU grain output forecast at 289 million tonnes

The EU will harvest 289 million tonnes of grain in 2008-09, according to analytical report Strategie Grains on Thursday.

This is down 2 million tonnes from last month's forecast due to dry weather conditions expected to affect crop yields in Spain, Romania and Cyprus, the report said.

The main downward revisions were made to barley and corn forecasts.

Even so, the anticipated 2008-09 production is significantly higher than the 2007-08 output of 255.2 million tonnes.