The 2024 wheat production, excluding durum, in the EU plus the UK will be 134.5 million tonnes, according to the June forecast of COCERAL, the European association of trade in cereals and other agricultural products.
This is marginally up from the 134.1 million tonnes projected in March and down from the 139.9 million tonnes harvested last year.
Heavy rainfall late last year significantly affected the sowing of wheat and barley in northwestern Europe, including France, Germany, the UK, the Baltics and Poland, while Spain is expected to see a substantial increase in production compared to 2023, COCERAL noted.
The soft wheat production forecast for Bulgaria is for 6.104 million tonnes, falling from 6.416 million tonnes last year.
COCERAL projects a total grain crop this year in the EU-27 and the UK of 296.0 million tonnes, compared to an earlier forecast of 295.5 million tonnes and an actual 2023 harvest of 292.8 million. The barley crop forecast was reduced to 59.9 million tonnes from 61.2 million tonnes, but this is still up from 54.4 million tonnes produced in 2023.
At the start of the harvest campaign earlier in June, Bulgarian agriculture minister Gerorgi Tahov projected wheat output of between 6.1 million and 6.3 million tonnes this year.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that wheat from EU countries bordering the Black Sea, such as Romania and Bulgaria, is trading at lower prices than the wheat from other producers, due to bumper crops in the region.
Additional information:
https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/outlooks/109355/whs-24f.pdf?v=3276.3
