European corn harvest expected to increase in France and Romania

EU corn crop, which makes up about 11% of world production, is said to increase more than predicted in France and Romania, according to a Bloomberg report.

The harvest will jump 15% to 63 million tonnes this year from 54.8 million tonnes in 2010, grain-industry lobby Coceral said. The forecast was raised by 5.7 million tonnes from June.

The crop would be the EU's biggest in three years, based on figures from the 27-nation bloc's statistics office. Coceral's estimate exceeds those of the USDA which forecast EU corn output of 61 million tonnes and 61.4 million tonnes respectively.

Production in France, the EU's largest corn grower, is expected to climb to 15.2 million tonnes from 13.8 million tonnes, according to Coceral. Romania's harvest, the second-biggest in the bloc, will rise to 10.4 million tonnes from 8.03 million tonnes, it said.

The EU soft-wheat harvest will come to 128.4 million tonnes this year against 127.9 million tonnes in 2010, more than the 126.5 million tonnes forecast in June, on better-than-expected harvests in France and the U.K., according to Coceral.

France, the world's second-largest wheat exporter in the 2010-11 marketing year behind the US, will reap 33.5 million tonnes of soft wheat this year. That compares with a June forecast for 32.7 million tonnes.

The UK soft-wheat crop is expected to be 14.7 million tonnes, up from a previous forecast for 13.9 million tonnes, while Germany will harvest 22.9 million tonnes, compared with a June outlook for 23.7 million tonnes.

EU durum-wheat production is expected to decline to 7.81 million tonnes from 8.68 million tonnes in 2010, while the barley crop is estimated at 51 million tonnes, against 52.7 million tonnes a year earlier, the industry group said.

The 2011 rapeseed harvest in the EU will slide to 18.9 million tonnes from 20.6 million tonnes, while the sunflower-seed crop is forecast to increase to 7.8 million tonnes from 6.72 million tonnes last year.