On Thursday 20 September, the EU agricultural cooperatives and organisations, Copa-Cogeca, warned that European cereal production will be down 12.2% in 2018.
“The figures confirm Copa and Cogeca’s June forecasts”, with production of hardly 273 million tonnes compared with over 300 million last year, a press release explains.
Member states should now fully implement all available climatic risk tools at their disposal, Copa-Cogeca say, following the severe drought that is still not over.
The European Commission is invited to better anticipate the problems and to take swifter action.
For oilseeds, Copa and Cogeca forecast total EU production at 30.7 million tonnes (33.5 million tonnes last year).
Coceral (cereal trade committee), for its part, forecasts cereal production of 283.5 million tonnes (compared with 300.2 million tonnes last year). The wheat crop was revised down to 129.9 million tonnes (141.9 million in 2017). Reductions have been made notably for Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries, Coceral explains. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)