EU: Winter barley crops looking good
Winter was mild in the EU, with few rather harmless weather anomalies, dryness in the Western Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe, too much moisture in the Balkans, H. M. Gauger GmbH said in their March report.
Winter crops are looking good. Planting of spring barley is virtually finished in France and Germany, half way in Denmark, Southern Sweden and the U.K., 85% in East Anglia (as of the end of March).
Crop forecasts of IGC, Coceral and the EU Commission range from 57.7 to 60 mln vs. 60 mln tons last year. It must be noted that these are trend figures and crops in the past few years turned out better than early forecasts.
Barley crops in selected countries, on the basis of official and private acreage and MARS yield forecasts for winter and spring barley, are expected as follows:
Denmark harvested 745 thousand tonnes of winter barley in 2014, the forecast for 2015 is 726 thousand. Spring barley crop was 2.851 mln last year and may reach 2.608 mln this year.
France’s last year winter barley crop was reported at 8.524 mln tonnes, spring at 3.221 mln. This year’s production may total 8.684 and 3.11 mln tonnes, respectively.
In Germany, both winter and spring barley output is forecast to decline this year: from 9.573 and 2.092 to 8.522 and 2.050 mln tonnes, respectively.
Spain, on the contrary, is looking for an increase in output of winter (from 743 to 910 thousand tonnes) and spring barley (from 6.318 to 6.914 mln tonnes) in 2015.
In Sweden, winter barley output will grow to 86 thousand tonnes from 81 thousand last year, and spring to 1.505 mln from 1.424 mln tonnes, analysts forecast.
The UK is expected to harvest smaller crops of both winter (2.983 mln tonnes vs. 3.096 mln last year) and spring barley (3.896 vs. 3.931 mln tonnes).
Tilbage
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