Wheat predictions heavily qualified

The chairman of Europe’s farming unions’ cereal working group, Max Schulman from Finland, stressed that many of the group’s members had expressed doubts about figures predicting a rise in cereal production to 278.5 million tonnes.

He said many members complained of bad winter cereal sowings resulting from poor weather conditions and said that a significant percentage of the crops would have to be re-sown.

With cereal stock levels expected to stay low until the end of the season, prices, should remain strong, he added

The group also looked at oilseed estimates for the 2013-14 marketing year with a predicted increase of 8.5 per cent on last year’s levels.

Schulman said: “The figures show that total EU oilseed production reached 27.2 million tonnes in 2012-143 and it is predicted to increase by to 29.576 million tonnes in 2013-14.”

Within that total, rapeseed production was forecast to climb by 7.6 per cent from 19.56 million tonnes to 21 million tonnes, but again Schulman cautioned against the accuracy of the figures because of weather conditions.

Excessive rainfall during the planting season had hit crops badly in terms of production and quality while frost kill was having a serious impact on crops in some countries in northern Europe.

After two consecutive years of winter frost kill, the farmers’ unions worried about the availability of seed for spring oilseed varieties, which was becoming increasingly tight.

They also had concerns about potential restrictions on the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments saying current weather variability demonstrated how important it was to protect crops against insects.

Any pesticide restrictions were likely to have a severe impact on oilseeds production in the EU, making it more dependent on imports. This would, argued the farmers’ unions, be disastrous given the tight world market situation for vegetable proteins. It would also hit the EU livestock sector, which is heavily dependent on it for feed.

ANDREW ARBUCKLE