PARIS (Reuters) – Consultancy Strategie Grains further cut its monthly forecast of the European Union’s drought-affected maize harvest, but said a wave of imports was helping limit supply tensions.
In a cereal report, the French firm cut its 2022 EU maize crop forecast to 50.4 million tonnes from 52.9 million projected in September, now down 28% from last year’s production.
“The European maize harvest is confirmed at the calamitously low level of just over 50 million tonnes, although users already anticipated this production crash and imported massively from Ukraine and Brazil at the end of 2021/22,” it said in the report.
Like other observers, Strategie Grains is expecting this year’s maize (corn) crop to be the lowest in 15 years after severe drought and heatwaves damaged plants during key summer growth stages.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Jan Harvey)
