November 18, 2011
Italy's 2011 corn yield rises, wheat falls
An increase in sown acreage boosted Italian 2011 corn harvest by almost 12% to 9.58 million tonnes, Italy's statistics agency ISTAT showed Thursday (Nov 17) in its first 2011 corn crop projection.
Corn output rose from 8.57 million tonnes in 2010 driven by an increase of plantings to 1.02 million hectares in 2011 from 926,776 ha last year, ISTAT data showed.
Italian farmers, who use their own method of gathering crops data, estimate the 2011 corn output at about 10.5-11.0 million tonnes.
The 2011 soft wheat output of Italy, a major producer in Europe, fell to 2.72 million tonnes from 2.94 million tonnes and from an earlier official estimate of 2.91 million tonnes for this year. ISTAT slashed its 2011 wheat areas view to 507,944 ha from 548,867 ha last year in its updated 2011 wheat crop data.
Output of durum wheat, used for making pasta, dropped to 3.83 million tonnes from 4.01 million tonnes in 2010, but that is up from a previous 2011 estimate of 3.67 million tonnes, ISTAT's revised 2011 crop data showed.
Durum wheat areas fell to 1.16 million ha from 1.28 million ha, the data showed.
Barley output fell to 860,000 tonnes in 2011 on 237,622 ha of planted area from 960,000 million tonnes on 272,213 ha, the data showed.
