Agency MARS again reduced the yield forecasts of the main agricultural crops in the EU

Crop monitoring service MARS on Monday again lowered its forecasts for the average EU cereal yield, as well as its forecast for maize production, as heat continued to worsen the condition of crops in southeastern Europe.

Thus, compared to July estimates, the forecast of rapeseed yield has been reduced from 3.1 to 3.07 t/ha, which will be 3% lower than last year's figure.

The corn yield forecast has been reduced from 7.24 to 7.03 t/ha, which will be 6% lower than last year's figure. The biggest downgrades were for Romania, which previously rivaled France as the EU's biggest corn producer, and for regions where the heat has coincided with limited access to water, such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece.

For Romania, the corn yield forecast was reduced compared to July estimates from 4.08 to 3.83 t/ha (by 18% lower than last year), and for Hungary – from 6.77 to 6.46 t/ha (by 21 % lower than last year).

In most of Romania, from July 1 to August 17, the temperature exceeded the norm by 2-3.5 ^o C, so this period became a record hot period in the entire history of MARS observations.

This week, according to MARS forecasts, abnormally warm weather will prevail in most regions of Europe, and in the south of Hungary, in Serbia and in the east of Ukraine, temperatures will exceed the average of 1991-2023 by 8 ^o C.

The forecast for the yield of wheat in the EU has been reduced compared to July from 5.87 to 5.68 t/ha (2% lower than last year), and for barley (winter and spring) – from 5.09 to 5.01 t/ha , which will exceed the figure of 2023 by 8%.

The low yield of winter wheat and barley is due to excessively wet weather in the West and North of Europe. Long rains reduced grain quality in the Baltic countries and delayed harvesting in France, the Benelux countries and Germany, where winter crops suffered from excess moisture throughout the season.

For France, the largest grain producer in the EU, the forecast for the yield of soft wheat has been reduced from 6.75 to 6.2 t/ha, which will be 16% less than the 2023 figure.