The soft wheat area in the European Union ahead of the 2014 crop is set to rise by 4 percent, boosted by attractive margins, while both barley and maize acreage would fall by the same proportion, analyst Strategie Grains said on Thursday. In its first detailed estimates for the 2014/2015 crop year, the analyst put the area sown with soft wheat at 24.1 million hectares, up 900,000 hectares or 4 percent on 2013/2014, in line with forecasts given to Reuters on Wednesday.
"Sowing conditions were satisfactory throughout Europe except in places where the summer crop harvests were not finished," the analyst said in its monthly report. Total barley area was estimated at 11.8 million hectares, down 500,000 hectares, corresponding to a fall in the spring barley area. The analyst estimated the grain maize acreage at 9.3 million hectares, down from 9.7 million in 2013/2014. "The winter cereal sowing season started well everywhere in Europe. Nevertheless, progress was slowing at the start of November in France, Italy and Austria," the analyst added.
Comments
Comments are closed.