World output of wheat and other major grains is expected to rise to record highs this year led by maize which expanded on the back of growing energy sector demand, the United Nations food body, FAO, said on Thursday.
"FAO's latest forecast for world cereals production in 2007 continues to point to a record output the bulk of increase in expected in maize," the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said in its semi-annual Food Outlook.
FAO has raised its 2007 global cereal output forecast to 2,125 million tonnes, including milled rice, up 6.2 percent from 2006 and outpacing a 2 percent growth in global demand seen at 2,114 million tonnes.
The agency said prices for most cereals would remain high and volatile in 2007/08 marketing season because total supplies would just barely match a rising demand, particularly strong from the fast-growing bifocals industry.
World output of maize which is used for food, feed and bioethanol making is set to hit a record high of 770 million tonnes in 2007 after bumper crops have been gathered in South America and the biggest areas since 1944 have been planted in the United States.
In the United States, some 86 million tonnes of maize would be used for bioethanol production in 2007/08, up 60 percent from already record use in a previous season, FAO said quoting the US Agriculture Department. World output of barley, the second most important coarse grain, is expected to rise nearly 6 percent to 148 million tonnes in 2007, and total coarse grains output would jump 9 percent to a record high of 1,073 million tonnes.
FAO said maize area expansion would be partly done at the expense of soyabeans, whose output is expected to fall, dragging down the entire oilseeds output and boosting prices.