Despite a big world grain harvest this year with relatively low prices seen globally, in the EU wheat production has fallen by 10% this year and rapeseed by 9.2%, according to the latest figures published on 9 September by Copa-Cogeca, the farming and agricultural cooperative organisation in the EU.
The figures for wheat could further worsen as harvesting has not yet been completed in all EU countries. Severe cash-flow problems, Copa-Cogeca warns, mean that farmers will not be able to buy enough certified seed or fertilisers to sow their new crops for the next season which could result in another poor EU harvest next year.
Copa-Cogeca blames this further fall in rapeseed production (following on from the drop in 2015) on the ban on neonicotinoid insecticides. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)