PARIS: The soft wheat area harvested in the European Union next year is expected to fall by 2percent compared with the 2026 crop, as farmers face rising production costs, commodity data firm Expana said on Thursday.
It did not give an area figure but the percentage estimate suggested the soft wheat area would fall to about 21 million hectares from the 21.4 million hectares Expana estimated for this year’s harvest.
In a report, the firm said that “cropping intentions for soft wheat do not look promising, with outlooks weighed down by high production costs.” Farmers have faced increasing energy and fertiliser costs, driven by disruption caused by the Iran war. However, the need to replace some drought-affected rapeseed plantings could help underpin soft wheat area, it added.
In its initial outlook for EU cereal planting, it also anticipated that winter barley area would expand at the expense of spring barley, while maize (corn) area was expected to decline further.