Germany: Barley crop forecast lifted by 60,000 tonnes

German farm co-operatives underlined the benefit to the country's wheat crop from recent rains, although the precipitation had proved less able to boost prospects for the likes of barley and rapeseed, Agrimoney.com reported on June 15.

The Deutscher Raiffeisenverband farm co-operatives group raised by 220,000 tonnes, to 25.02 mln tonnes its forecast for this year's wheat harvest in Germany, the European Union's second-ranked producer of the grain.

The upgrade took the figure further above last year's result of 24.46m tonnes, and placed the DRV around the middle of market commentators.

Coceral has forecast a 24.92 mln-tonne crop, but the International Grains Council sees greater scope, putting it at 25.6m tonnes.

"Overall, cereal crops are in good-to=satisfactory condition," the DRV said, citing in particular the benefit to from "precipitation in recent weeks" in many areas, which had proved particularly beneficial to wheat prospects.

While the forecasts for some other crops were also upgraded, it was by lesser amounts, with the overall barley crop forecast lifted by some 60,000 tonnes to 10.65 mln tonnes, and the estimate for the rapeseed harvest raised by 100,000 tonnes to 4.79 mln tonnes.

"As a result of the partly unfavourable weather conditions, rapeseed continues to show generally weaker prospects than the average for recent years."

Still, the rapeseed harvest was seen coming in more than 210,000 tonnes above last year's result.

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