The European Union's wheat production should remain nearly unchanged in 2014/2015 as a rise in the area sown should offset lower yields, the European Commission said on Wednesday. In its first estimate for the 2014 harvest, the Commission pegged the EU's usable production at 134.7 million tonnes, against 134.3 million in 2013, based on a 2.8 percent rise in area sown and a 2.3 percent fall in yields.
That would still be nearly 5 percent above the five-year average. The Commission saw the barley usable production falling by 2.9 million tonnes to 56.4 million tonnes in the 2014/2015 marketing year - which runs from July to June - due to both a fall in area and yields.
Usable production is the harvested production after deduction of on-field losses and wastage, which usually accounts for less than one percent of the crop. It pegged the maize harvest at 69.4 million tonnes this year, up from 65.7 million in 2013 and nearly 13 percent above the 5-year average, due to improved yields. The area sown would remain stable on year.
Total usable grains production in the EU in 2014 would be at 301.3 million tonnes, down slightly from 304.8 million last year, it said. For rapeseed, the Commission forecast production at 20.7 million tonnes, down from 20.8 million tonnes last year but still more than 2.5 percent above the five-year average. Overall, milder than usual and sufficiently humid conditions allowed a good crop emergence and establishment, the Commission said. "No extreme frost event was recorded except in Slovenia; however the risk is there for the coming weeks considering also that, where present, the protecting snow cover on the
territory is currently thin," it added. The Commission also noted excessive rainfall in some regions of western Europe since winter grains were sowed. It expected some replanting strategies or shift to spring/summer crops in Ireland, South-Eastern England and Northern Italy where the January to mid-February period was the wettest recorded since 1975.
