Global grain production in MY 2017/18 will slightly exceed the record volume of MY 2016/17 — FAO

Global grain production in MY 2017/18 is forecast to surpass the 2016/17 peak by a small margin.

FAO projects world grain production in MY 2017/18 at 2.613 billion tons (the previous forecast was 2.612 billion tons), which is 5.8 million tons higher than the level of MY 2016/17.

"Total production of coarse grains is set to reach a new record (1 339.7 million tons), with most of the expansion taking place in South America and Southern Africa," the analysts note.

However, wheat production is forecast to decline slightly from last year (from 760.2 million tons in MY 2016/17 to 752.8 million tons in MY 2017/18) in spite of an upward adjustment since October driven by a larger-than-earlier anticipated harvest in the Russian Federation.

"The decline in wheat production from 2016 mostly reflects a lower harvest in the United States, as well as a projected fall in Australia’s wheat crop after a record output in 2016. Global rice production in 2017 is expected to remain broadly stable," FAO reports.

Reference: the harvest of grain and leguminous crops in Ukraine as of October 27 amounted to 50.6 million tons, harvested area totalled 14.6 million hectares, and the average yield made up 4.01 tons/ha (2016 — 4.27 tons/ha).