ROME, ITALY — Global wheat production in 2024 is forecast to increase by 1% over the previous year but will fall short of the record output reached in 2022, according to a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
The FAO noted that in the United States and Canada, two of the world’s largest wheat producers, plantings are down but anticipated yields are up due to improved weather conditions. The FAO pegs 2024 US wheat production at 51.5 million tonnes, which would be above the recent five-year average and last year’s total. Canada, meanwhile, is projected to harvest 33 million tonnes in 2024 despite a 2% contraction in wheat plantings.
Also contributing to the FAO’s projected global wheat output of 797 million tonnes are Russia, where a small increase is expected due to favorable weather conditions; China, where strong domestic demand and an increase in the minimum purchase price have supported expanded planted area is spurring an expected rise in production; and Pakistan, which is expected to increase production to 28.3 million tonnes in 2024.
India had been expected to produce a near record crop this year, but recent rainfall and hailstorms in key production areas just before harvest have tempered expectations for the country’s wheat harvest despite increased plantings.
With wheat planting having been disrupted by heavy rains in several of the European Union’s key wheat-producing countries, particularly France and Germany, output in the EU in 2024 is expected to fall slightly to 133 million tonnes, the FAO said, adding that a similar scenario is expected to play out in the United Kingdom.
