Sunflower and corn yield lower in drought-damaged Europe

In view of the persistent dry weather conditions in most of Europe, MARS analysts made downward adjustments to corn and sunflower yields in the EU in 2019/20, the APK-Inform consultancy reports.

Analysts expect that this season the average yield of corn in the EU will reach 7.63 t/ha, 8.6% lower from 2018/19, in particular, due to a decrease in the yield in Slovakia to 6.77 t/ha (-20% per year), Romania — to 6.66 t/ha (-14%), Poland — to 5.18 t/ha (-14%), Italy — to 8.70 t/ha (-12%), Bulgaria — to 6.96 t/ha (-11%), France — to 8.05 t/ha (-9.1%), Hungary — to 7.94 t/ha (-5.9%) and Lithuania — to 6.21 t/ha (-5.1%).

Sunflower yield in the EU in 2019/20 is forecasted at 2.29 t/ha, 5.3% lower from the previous season. In particular, a significant decline in oilseed crop yield is expected in France to 2.12 t/ha (-6.2% per year), Romania — to 2.49 t/ha (-11%), Estonia — to 1.17 t/ha (-13%) and Slovakia — to 2.54 t/ha (-13%).

Previously reported that by September 12th harvesting of grain and leguminous crops in Ukraine was carried out on the area of 10.2 mln ha or 67% of the total. The crop reached 40.1 mln t using the average yield of 3.93 t/ha.

By the Harvest Online 2019 project, the new crop volumes are as followed:

• early grain and leguminous crops — 39.2 mln t on 9.96 mln ha or 99.9% of the total area;
• buckwheat — 39 thou. t on 29 thou. ha or 43%;
• millet — 121 thou. t on 64 thou. ha or 71%;
• corn — 653 thou. t on 110 thou. ha or 2%;
• soybean — 747 thou. t on 337 thou. ha or 21% yielding 2.28 t/ha;
• sunflower — 4 mln t on 1.9 mln ha or 32% yielding 2.12 t/ha.