Brussels, 24/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's in-house scientific service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), published on Tuesday 24 July its annual crop yield forecast for Europe. The JCR prediction is that the 2007 total cereal harvest will be 276 million tonnes in 2007, 1.6% below the average of the last five years with Central and Eastern Europe losing out the most. The regions of the north have been affected by very heavy rainfall, whereas the eastern countries have suffered heatwaves, especially in the Black Sea region. Cereal production in 2007 is nonetheless 10 million tonnes higher than that recorded in 2006.
Looking at individual crops across the EU27 over the past five years, the latest 2007 yield forecasts are: soft wheat about 0%, durum wheat +13.5%, barley +3.4%, grain maize -0.8%, rape seed -5.1%, sunflower -3.4%, potato +8.1%, and sugar beet +4.2%.
The production in 2007 is down compared to average production in Romania (-20.1% for wheat, -19.9% for barley, -17.7% for maize, -16.9% for sunflower, -50% for rape seed), Bulgaria (-14.6% for barley, -12.4% for soft wheat, -40.4% for maize, -20% for sunflower), Hungary (-6.7% for maize, -7.9% for potato, -5.9% for barley), Slovak Republic (-8.9% for soft wheat, -2% for winter barley, -15.6% for rape seed), and the Czech Republic (-7.1% for soft wheat, -7.7% for barley).
The JCR specifies that the rate of land cover for cereal production in 2007 over the EU27 as a whole had decreased by 2.3%. Whereas 276 million tonnes (5 million tonnes or 1.6% less than the five-year average) will be produced, this still represents approximately 10 million tonnes more production than 2006 figures. (lc)