The European Union is set for a larger wheat harvest this summer as a heatwave in late June which wilted some crops had a less severe impact than initially feared, traders and industry officials said.
“The heatwave caused a late crop loss of a couple of million tonnes but overall we are still facing a big crop and big export supplies in the leading producers France, Germany, Britain and Poland,” one German trader said.
EU wheat was devastated by drought in summer 2018 but weather this year was better.
In the EU’s largest producer France, farmers had harvested 33pc of the soft wheat crop by July 15, up from 9pc a week earlier although behind the 64% done a year ago.
“In France, the harvest is looking better than expected. Yields are very good despite the heatwave,” one trader said.
After production expectations were trimmed following the late-June heatwave with record temperatures, decent harvest yields were encouraging market participants to raise forecasts again to 38 million tonnes or higher, up from around 34m last year.
Wheat protein readings were generally at 11pc or above, marking an improvement from early harvesting on the west coast that showed some protein content below the 11pc minimum usually required for milling markets, traders said.
In second largest producer Germany, the crop will increase 17.7pc on the year to 23.85m tonnes, farm cooperatives forecast.
“The June heatwave meant the loss of about 850,000 tonnes of German wheat but despite that the crop is looking good and the loss is not regarded as serious,” a German trader said.
Harvesting in Britain is expected to start in 10 days to two weeks with crops generally in good shape.
Production is expected to top last year’s crop of 14m tonnes. “I think 15 (million tonnes) is a prudent estimate with expectations that it could go higher,” said Jack Watts, chief combinable crops advisor at the National Farmers Union.