The European Commission has cut its forecast for this year's corn harvest in the European Union by 8%, or 5.9 million tonnes, joining other analysts who have lowered their expectations due to torrid weather in the bloc.
The Commission now sees the EU's maize crop at 65.8 million tonnes, compared with 71.7 million forecast at the end of June and 72.7 million harvested last year, supply and demand data published at the end of the month showed. last week.
The commission made no reference to weather conditions in a note on its website, but said the forecast cut mainly reflected lower yield projections for Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
Corn crops experienced worsening heat waves and droughts during the crucial summer growing season.
Expected EU corn imports in the 2022/23 season rose by 1.5 million tonnes to 16.5 million tonnes, now in line with the volume imported in 2021/22, the Commission's data showed.
For soft wheat, the EU's executive body lowered its harvest forecast to 123.9 million tonnes, down from 125.0 million previously estimated and compared to 130.1 million last year.
The Commission also cut its EU soft wheat export forecast by 2 million tonnes to 36 million, citing expectations of increased Ukrainian shipments.