PARIS, July 27 (Reuters) – The European Union’s crop-monitoring service on Monday cut all its yield forecasts for this year’s EU harvest, slashing its monthly estimate for grain maize by 7 percent after dry and hot weather hit top producing countries.
The Monitoring Agricultural Resources (MARS) unit now estimates EU grain maize yields at 6.71 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), 10.4 percent below last year and 4.4 percent under the five-year average, it said in a monthly report.
Prolonged dry weather and heatwaves in France as well as other major producing countries have prompted forecasters to cut their estimates for the EU grains harvests in recent weeks.
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Maize (corn) has become the focus of weather concerns in the European grain market as the crops went through crucial development stages.
MARS mentioned Spain, Italy and France as facing the strongest impact from adverse weather, which caused severe damage to non-irrigated maize crops.
French farm office FranceAgriMer last week said the condition of maize crops had declined again with 62 percent rated good or excellent, compared with 67 percent the previous week and 71 percent by July 6.
“Yield forecasts for all crops at EU-28 level have been lowered compared to last month’s forecast due to suboptimal weather conditions,” MARS said in its report.
“The forecast for winter cereals remains above the five-year average but the forecast for total cereals dropped just below the five-year average, due to the significant downward revision for grain maize,” it added.
MARS cut its estimate for this year’s soft wheat yields to 5.80 t/ha from 5.85 t/ha estimated last month, now down 5.4 percent on 2014 but still 2.4 percent above the five-year average.
Barley yields, including winter and spring varieties, are now pegged at 4.61 t/ha, down from 4.65 t/ha last month and 5.9 percent below last year.
In oilseeds, it reduced its estimate for the EU’s 2015 rapeseed yield to 3.23 t/ha, against 3.28 t/ha seen last month, now down 10.8 percent on last year.
MARS reduced its forecast for this year’s sugar beet yield in the bloc to 71.91 t/ha, from 73.52 t/ha seen in June and 6.0 percent below 2014.
