Brussels, 07/08/2008 (Agence Europe) - The end of compulsory set-aside of farmland and better weather will led to a rise in EU cereal production in 2008. The cereals harvest is forecast to reach 301 million tonnes for the whole of the EU, up 16% on 2007 and up 9% on the average harvest over the past five years according to figures released by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) on Thursday 7 August 2008.
The provisional yield in cereals in the EU is estimated at 5 tonnes per hectare but this varies depending on the type of cereal, ranging from 5.6 tonnes/hectare (t/h) for common wheat (up 4.8% on the average over the past five years) to 3.1 t/h for durum wheat (up 12.8%), 4.4 t/h for barley (up 5.7%), 6.9 t/h for grain maize, 2.9 t/h for colza (down 2.1%), 1.6 t/h for sunflower seed (up 1.7%), compared with 26.5 t/h for potatoes (down 1.1%) and 70.3 t/h for sugarbeet (up 19.0%). The growing of sugarbeet has benefitted from favourable weather conditions in the main growing areas (Germany and France) while maize has been boosted by a substantial rise in the volumes grown in Bulgaria and Romania following a serious drought last year. Milder winters in the centre and east of Europe and plentiful rain throughout the season (particularly in Spain) also explain the high cereal yields in Europe.
Cereal yield figures are calculated through a combination of statistical analysis, cereal production simulation models, weather information and remote sensing of information. They are published on the assumption that there will not be any extreme events in the rest of the season which could impact on the summer harvest of maize and sunflower seed (along with the summer crop of potatoes and sugarbeet). (M.B. transl fl)