PARIS, France (Reuters) — The European Union has raised its forecast for this year’s soft wheat harvest to 149.2 million tonnes, up 4.6 million tonnes from its previous outlook a month ago.
It is higher than last year’s record 148.7 million tonne harvest.
The EU’s monthly supply-and-demand projections also lifted its estimate of this year’s barley harvest to 60.9 million tonnes from 59 million, which is higher than last year’s 60.2 million tonnes.
It also lowered its corn crop outlook to 57.4 million tonnes from 58.4 million last month, which is significantly lower than last year’s record 77.9 million tonne harvest.
A summer heat wave came too late to hurt the winter wheat crop but damaged spring seeded corn.
