by PressIn Europe, corn yields are lower this season than in the previous one
Corn yields in Europe did not meet analysts’ forecasts
The current agricultural season has proved to be difficult for Europe. A prolonged drought has negatively affected corn yields, which has caused an increase in the price of the crop. According to the latest indicators, the cost of corn, which sells for 352 euros per ton, exceeds the price of wheat by 10 euros.
European countries use corn as a raw material for feed production. Given the poor harvest, imports of the crop were about 16.5 million tons. Local production was about 66 million tons, though initial forecasts were for nearly 72 million tons. The main reason for the decline in corn production was weather conditions — high temperatures combined with a lack of rainfall. As a result, the crop yield per hectare was at 7.25 tons, against the five-year average of 7.87 tons per hectare.
In France, the heat and drought came in the first half of July, which made experts lower their forecasts. The total harvest volume of local farmers amounted to about 13 million tons, last year’s value was 15.5 million tons. At the same time, 35% of crops in France are irrigated, and they are compensated to some extent for the loss of production. However, irrigation was insufficient, in some areas of the country irrigation was limited due to lack of water. A similar situation was observed in some regions of Italy, as the amount of precipitation here is below the norm since the spring. As a result, in Italy corn harvest amounted to 5 million tons, which is 1 million tons less than in the previous season.
The largest producer of corn in the European Union is Romania, together with France, this country provides most of the exports on the EU internal market. The harvest in Romania amounted to almost 14 million tons, although in the previous season it was at the level of 15.2 million tons. Here there has been a drought since the spring, which led to lower production not only of corn but also of spring crops.
In Germany, the harvest was about 4 million tons, 0.5 million tons less than last year. Heavy rains at the end of the season corrected the situation a little, but they could not increase production significantly.
In the previous year, a record volume of crops was harvested by Poland — 7.5 million tons. In the current period, this figure amounted to 7 million tons, which was also facilitated by an increase in cultivated areas. However, the drought here, too, affected the harvest, and initial forecasts were higher than the actual volumes produced.