The European Union's crop-monitoring service raised its yield forecast for this year's EU maize crop after welcome rainfall in the southeast and left its soft wheat yield estimate unchanged as a cut for Germany was offset by a better outlook for France. In a monthly report released on Monday, the MARS service lifted its projected EU maize yield to 6.93 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) from the 6.83 t/ha seen last month, still 3 percent below last year's level but now slightly above the five-year average.
Last month MARS had cut its estimate for the average EU grain maize (corn) yield, citing the expected impact of heatwaves and low rainfall in the southeast of the 28-member bloc. "In large parts of the Mediterranean region, central and eastern Europe, heatwaves and low precipitation continued in July and at the beginning of August.