EU: EU barley crop forecast lowered to 58 mln tonnes

The European Union wheat harvest, the world's biggest, received its second downgrade in two days, thanks to dryness in France and Spain, as Strategie Grains lowered its forecast, again.

Paris-based Strategie Grains cut by 900,000 tonnes to 140.7 mln tonnes its estimate for the EU soft wheat harvest - reducing it to within 5 mln tonnes of last year's result, when production was undermined by ill-timed rains in France.

The downgrade followed cuts of 1.1 mln tonnes to the harvest estimate in both April and May reports.

And it left the group's estimate of the total EU wheat crop, including durum, at 149.3 mln tonnes – a rise of just 3.3 mln tonnes year on year.

Strategie Grains cited weaker yield prospects and France and Spain as behind the downgrade, with excessive heat seen curtailing development during the grain filling phase.

Strategie Grains also, citing weakened Spanish prospects, lowered its forecast for the EU barley crop by 500,000 tonnes to 58.0 mln tonnes, taking it 2.5 mln tonnes below last year's result, and to the lowest in some years.

That is below estimates of 58.8 mln tonnes from the IGC, and a 59.1 mln-tonne forecast by the USDA, although above a commission figure of 57.0 mln tonnes.

And on corn, Strategie Grains reduced its forecast by 1.2 mln tonnes to 58.8 mln tonnes, taking it below last year's level of 60.0 mln tonnes.

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