Due to favourable weather conditions, a larger EU corn harvest is expected this summer, which would reduce the Union's dependence on imports from major corn supplier, Ukraine.

A mixture of rain and sunshine in much of Europe during May has enabled farmers to complete their planned corn sowings, with plants developing well, analysts said.

Hungary is forecast to harvest 7.6 million tonnes, against 6.7 million tonnes in 2013. Romania is expected to reap 9.5 million tonnes, close to its exceptionally large crop harvest of 10.6 million tonnes from a year ago. Poland may harvest 3.5 million tonnes, only slightly down from a large harvest of four million tonnes last year when bad weather disrupted swings of other spring grains.