PARIS, France (Reuters) — The European Union’s crop monitoring service cut its yield forecast on Monday for this year’s EU grain maize harvest for a second straight month after hot, dry weather stressed crops in major producing countries.
The MARS service projected the average grain maize yield at 2.59 tonnes per acre, down from 2.72 tonnes per acre estimated last month. This would be 20.5 percent less than last year’s yield and 8.8 percent below the five-year average.
Maize (corn) has been the cereal to suffer most from low rainfall and record temperatures in Europe this summer because those conditions came in the middle of the crop’s growth cycle, while wheat and barley were being harvested.
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“Large areas of Europe have been negatively impacted by high temperatures and dry conditions, hitting summer crops during their most critical grain-filling stage,” MARS said in its monthly report.
It cited southern Spain, Italy, eastern France, southern Germany and Poland as regions further affected by hot weather in late July and early August.
Other eastern EU countries such as Hungary and Romania had also experienced high temperatures since mid-August, which impacted maize grain formation, but recent rainfall led to a partial recovery in crop conditions in those countries, it said.
The dry and hot summer in the EU has prompted several forecasters to reduce their estimates for the French and EU maize harvests in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, MARS slightly raised its yield estimate for the EU wheat harvest to 2.35 tonnes per acre from 2.34 tonnes last month. This was now down 5.4 percent from 2014 but 2.5 percent above the five-year mean.
Barley yields, including winter and spring varieties, are now pegged at 1.869 tonnes per acre, up from 1.865 tonnes per acre last month but 5.8 percent below last year.
“The yield outlook for winter cereals is slightly improved thanks to favourable weather conditions in northern parts of Europe,” MARS said.
In oilseeds, it raised its estimate for the EU’s 2015 rapeseed yield to 1.315 tonnes per acre, against 1.307 tonnes per acre seen last month, now down 10.2 percent on last year but still 3.8 percent above the five-year average.
MARS lowered its forecast for this year’s sugar beet yield in the EU to 28.87 tonnes per acre, against 29.1 tonnes per acre seen in July. This was 7.5 percent below the 2014 level but 1.3 percent higher than the five-year average.
To access the MARS monthly crop report, visit ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/bulletin/mars-bulletin-vol-23-no-8.
