PARIS: Weather that was too dry then too wet has hampered field work in large parts of Europe in recent weeks, causing delays to the harvesting of summer crops and sowing of winter crops, the European Union's crop monitoring service MARS on Monday.
The adverse conditions and a re-appraisal of data since the start of the season caused the crop monitor to cut its yield outlook again for all summer crops in the 27-member bloc.
For this year's grain maize, MARS now expects an average EU yield at 7.42 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), down from its forecast last month of 7.83 t/ha, putting it 2.1% below the five-year average, it said in a report.
Lower yields for maize, for which harvesting is in full swing in Europe, are likely to push down production this year despite a sharp rise in plantings, analysts said.
For the sugar beet crop, MARS cut the EU yield to 72.5 t/ha, down from 73.0 t/ha seen in September and now 2.8% under the five-year average. MARS also cut its forecast for the 2020 EU sunflower yield to 2.15 t/ha from 2.21 t/ha last month, now 4.2% under the five-year average.
Warm and dry summer weather over the first three weeks of September caused extreme temperatures in a large part of Eastern Europe, MARS said. The following abundant rainfall led to delays to the harvesting of summer crops as well as to sowing activities in most parts of central and western Europe, the report said.
"For winter rapeseed, the sowing window has come to an end. For winter cereals, timely completion of the sowing campaign is still possible in the coming weeks," the report said.