The world's farmers will produce 670 million tonnes of wheat in 2011/12, Canada's Agriculture Department forecast on Friday, an increase of about 3 percent, mostly due to better crops in the Black Sea region, which was hit by severe drought last summer.
The forecast, part of the department's annual wheat outlook, is based on analysis, not a farmer survey. Ag Canada's view was slightly lower than that of the International Grains Council's forecast last month of 672 million tonnes, but much higher than the Canadian Wheat Board's February forecast for 653.5 million tonnes.
For the upcoming 2011/12 crop year, Agriculture Canada expects Canadian farmers to lift all-wheat plantings by 3 percent and produce a slightly higher harvest of 20.7 million tonnes. Seedings of spring wheat were forecast to increase only 2 percent because of wet conditions in Western Canada.