Spain's Agriculture Ministry has raised its forecasts for the winter cereals harvest to 18.95 million tonnes from the previous 15.81 million, following heavy rain in late spring. That would be just 3.5 percent below the bumper winter grain harvest - mainly barley and wheat - of 19.64 million tonnes a year ago in a country heavily dependent on grain imports.
In its latest unscheduled release, using data compiled by the end of May, the ministry estimated the maize crop would come in at 3.45 million tonnes this year, which compares with 3.52 million in 2007.
Many parts of Spain suffered their driest winter since 1948/49 and farmers feared for the winter cereals harvest as northeast region Catalonia nearly had to ration drinking water. Heavy rain fell between mid-April and mid-June and has done much to help crop development, as well as replenish reservoirs needed to irrigate spring-planted maize in Spain's arid climate.
The ministry said farmers planted 8.3 percent more land to winter cereals, which follows the European Union scrapping a requirement to set aside 10 percent of land in a bid to boost output and check soaring world prices.
The biggest projected increase is for durum wheat, the only crop in which Spain usually has an exportable surplus and for which fob prices topped 500 euros per tonne at the end of March in the southern port of Seville. Durum output is forecast to rise 26.2 percent to 1.56 million tonnes. Merchants and farmers said field work was almost complete after a delayed start due to rain in southern regions Andalucia - where most of Spain's durum is grown - and Extremadura.
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