BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — In its second forecast for the 2021 season, COCERAL forecasts the total grain crop in the EU-27+UK at 306.8 million tonnes, down slightly from the previous forecast of 307.4 million tonnes but up significantly from the 297.2 million tonnes harvested in 2020.

The report, released on March 11, said wheat production has been revised down from 143 million tonnes to 141.5 million, mainly due to lower-than-previously expected winter wheat plantings in Germany, Italy and Hungary. Last year’s wheat crop was 128.2 million tonnes.

EU-27+UK 2021 barley production is still forecast at 61.5 million tonnes, down from 63.9 million tonnes last year. While Germany and France are forecast to see much better crops than in 2020, production is seen down in Spain, where weather during the most critical crop development stage has been excellent in 2020, and in the UK, where spring barley planting should decrease substantially as the country has planted more winter grains this year than last year.

The EU-27+UK 2021 corn crop forecast has not changed either and is still seen up year-on-year at 63.5 million tonnes (last year’s total was 62.4 million), with much higher crops in the Balkan countries and small reductions in several other EU member states.

The EU-27+UK rapeseed crop is still forecast to recover slightly from 17.1 million tonnes to 17.7 million because of slightly higher crops in several countries, including Germany, France, the UK, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.