Europe: EU-27 barley crop forecast unchanged, estimates for Ukraine and Russia crops still considered as attainable

After a very good start to barley harvest in the EU, rain has interrupted progress, however, there is no negative impact expected as the forecast is clear. RMI Analytics’ barley production forecast for EU-27 is unchanged at 59.0 mln tonnes, the analysts said in their latest report.

So far, the winter crop result in France and Germany is positive for winter barley, as well as French spring barley sown during autumn. The remaining critical outcome is spring barley, where harvest is expected to start up rapidly once the forecast clears and fields dry out.

Early harvest results in Russia and Ukraine show some yield reductions from the severe heat during May/June, especially in the south of Russia. However, the expectation is yields will improve as harvest progresses, and production estimates are attainable.

While the critical result for Europe’s spring barley crop still awaits validation, the prospects remain generally good across Europe, and a degree of price stability has already been achieved from early harvest (winter) results.