United Kingdom EU-28: Crop Update
Very good growing conditions across much of EU28 saw an early start to harvest. However, recent rains on the Continent have raised quality concerns for the otherwise large wheat crop. This is particularly the case in France, the EU28’s largest producer and exporter of milling wheat, and in Bulgaria and Romania. The EU28’s barley crop has been less detrimentally affected by the recent weather. The winter barley harvest is now all but complete with quality described as generally good.The spring barley harvest is reported to have got off to a good start. Finally, the recent mixture of sun and rain bodes well for an already well developed corn crop, pending no weather shocks through to harvest. With feed quality grains likely to be in abundance in MY2014/15 in the EU28, there is a significant focus on an expected reduction in exports. Combined with the large size of the overall grain crop, revised up 2.5 MMT to just over 306 MMT, there is also the potential for a large increase in otherwise low EU28 grain stocks.