In its crop monitoring bulletin published on Monday 19 September, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) reports that in Europe, between 1 August and 10 September, the rainfall seen in the majority of European regions came too late to have a significant impact on summer crops. On the other hand, the improved conditions have not yet had a positive impact on productivity in pastures.
Yield forecasts have been revised down slightly since the August MARS bulletin for all cereals except summer wheat, which has already been harvested.
In some parts of Spain, the drought has continued during the period in question, and there are concerns about the level of water reserves, including levels for the coming season. In Hungary and Romania, heat waves have caused further damage to summer crops. Dry soils have hampered winter cereal sowing in northern Europe, while conditions that were overly wet caused damage to new planting in Poland.
Rice is very sensitive to water stress. However, conditions have been extremely hot and dry in most of the producing regions in Europe. At -21% below the five-year average, rice yields are forecast to be the cereal suffering the most deterioration this year compared to other cereals. Yield forecasts for maize are -19% below average, potatoes -2% below average, sunflower -13%, soybean -17% and green maize -10%.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/37d (Original version in French by Emilie Vanderhulst)