EU Corn Crop to Jump 15% on France, Romania, Coceral Says

The European Union corn crop, which makes up about 11 percent of world production, is forecast to rise more than predicted in June on higher yields in France and Romania, grain-industry lobby Coceral said.

The harvest will jump 15 percent to 63 million metric tons this year from 54.8 million tons in 2010, Brussels-based Coceral said in an e-mailed statement today. The forecast was raised by 5.7 million tons from June.

The crop would be the EU’s biggest in three years, based on figures from the 27-nation bloc’s statistics office. Coceral’s estimate exceeds those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the International Grains Council, which forecast EU corn output of 61 million tons and 61.4 million tons, respectively.

Production in France, the EU’s largest corn grower, is expected to climb to 15.2 million tons from 13.8 million tons, according to Coceral. Romania’s harvest, the second-biggest in the bloc, will rise to 10.4 million tons from 8.03 million tons, it said.

The EU soft-wheat harvest will come to 128.4 million tons this year against 127.9 million tons in 2010, more than the 126.5 million tons forecast in June, on better-than-expected harvests in France and the U.K., according to Coceral.

France, Germany

France, the world’s second-largest wheat exporter in the 2010-11 marketing year behind the U.S., will reap 33.5 million tons of soft wheat this year, Coceral said. That compares with a June forecast for 32.7 million tons.

The U.K. soft-wheat crop is expected to be 14.7 million tons, up from a previous forecast for 13.9 million tons, while Germany will harvest 22.9 million tons, compared with a June outlook for 23.7 million tons, according to Coceral.

EU durum-wheat production is expected to decline to 7.81 million tons from 8.68 million tons in 2010, while the barley crop is estimated at 51 million tons, against 52.7 million tons a year earlier, the industry group said.

The 2011 rapeseed harvest in the EU will slide to 18.9 million tons from 20.6 million tons, while the sunflower-seed crop is forecast to increase to 7.8 million tons from 6.72 million tons last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.