EU & UK: Barley production still forecast at 61.5 mln tonnes

In its second forecast for the 2021 crop, COCERAL sees the total grain crop in the EU-27+UK at 306.8 mln tonnes. This is slightly down from the previous forecast of 307.4 mln tonnes, but would be up significantly from the 297.2 mln tonnes harvested in 2020.

The wheat production has been revised down from 143.0 mln tonnes to 141.5 mln tonnes, mainly due to lower than previously expected winter wheat plantings in Germany, Italy, and Hungary. Last year’s crop was at 128.2 mln tonnes.

The EU-27+UK 2021 barley production is still forecast at 61.5 mln tonnes, down from 63.9 mln tonnes last year. While Germany and France are forecast to see much better crops than in 2020, production is seen down in Spain, where weather during the most critical crop development stage has been excellent in 2020, and in the UK, where spring barley planting should decrease substantially as the country has planted more winter grains this year than last year.

The EU-27+UK 2021 corn crop forecast has not changed either and is still seen up year-on-year at 63.5 mln tonnes (last year: 62.4 mln tonnes), with much higher crops in the Balkan countries and small reductions in several other EU member states.

The EU-27+UK rapeseed crop is still forecast to recover slightly from 17.1 mln tonnes to 17.7 mln tonnes because of slightly higher crops in several countries, including Germany, France, the UK, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

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