Warm and dry weather over the last few weeks has lead A French analyst to significantly cut its estimate of the enlarged European Union's 2004/2005 soft wheat and barley output on Thursday.
In its monthly newsletter French analyst Strategies Grains said it had cut its EU-25 soft wheat estimate by 1.2 million tonnes from last month to 118.2 million, although that is still 20 percent higher than 2003 when a large part of the crop was ravaged by drought.
The main countries affected by a cut in output estimates were France, Denmark, Britain, Sweden and the Baltic States.
"Yields are still set to be high in these countries but are now forecast at a slightly lower level than last month following the weather events of May/June (high temperatures and dry conditions) and a high disease pressure," it said.