Britain's farm ministry left its March estimate of this season's exportable UK wheat surplus unchanged on the month at almost 2.91 million tonnes on Wednesday, up 32 percent from last year. In its latest supply/demand data for cereals, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said UK growers harvested 15.473 million tonnes of wheat for the current July-June campaign.
Britain shipped 2.211 million tonnes of wheat in 2003/04 after a crop of nearly 14.3 million.
The ministry reduced its estimate of wheat imports this season from 1.05 million tonnes in February to one million tonnes in March.
"Import estimates have been lowered to one million tonnes following lower than expected volumes so far this season. This leaves total wheat availability at 18.36 million tonnes, up seven percent on last season," Britain's home-grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) said in an accompanying note.
Linked to the reduced import target, DEFRA cut its end-of-season stock count by 50,000 tonnes from last month to 1.836 million tonnes. End-June wheat stocks in 2003/04 were three percent higher at 1.885 million tonnes. DEFRA left its output and exportable surplus figures for barley unchanged from February at 5.82 million and 846,000 tonnes, respectively.
UK barley output was nine percent higher at 6.370 million tonnes in 2003/04.