PALM COAST, FLORIDA, U.S. — Soft wheat millers at division meetings of the North American Millers’ Association (NAMA) in Palm Coast, Florida, U.S., on March 26 forecast a 17% increase in 2013 soft red winter wheat production and an 8% increase in soft white winter wheat outturn from a year earlier. 

The soft wheat millers forecast soft red winter wheat production in 2013 at 492.3 million bushels, up 72.5 million bushels, or 17%, from 419.8 million bushels in 2012. If the forecast is realized, the 2013 crop would be the largest since 613.6 million bushels were harvested in 2008. 

Crop forecast panelists indicated production would be up in all major regions with the widest increases from 2012 indicated for the central states of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin, and the Midwest states of Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri. 

The millers also forecast soft white winter wheat production in 2013 at 225.4 million bushels, up 17.1 million bushels or 8%, from 208.3 million bushels in 2012. Soft white winter wheat production in the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Washington and Oregon was forecast at 209.3 million bushels, up 19.7 million bushels, or 10%, from 189.6 million bushels in 2012.