Eastern Europe Crop Prospects Diminishing

It's certainly been a funny old year, with droughts and heatwaves in western Europe and Russia/Kazakhstan, it seems that all the rain intended for those areas has been falling in eastern Europe.

In Bulgaria heavy rain, strong winds and hail mean that a wheat harvest of 3.5-3.6 MMT "will be very hard to achieve" says the chairman of Bulgaria's National Association of Grain Producers.

The last estimate from the Bulgarian Ag Ministry had wheat production similar to last season's crop at around 4.0 MMT. Barley production was estimated at 900,000 MT by the Ministry then, although the National Association of Grain Producers now note that "the situation is worse for barley".

In Romania too, heavy rains have stalled the early harvest, causing widespread flooding and reducing production. The Ministry here cut it's wheat production estimate by 700,000 MT to 6 MMT today.

It's a similar situation in Hungary, where the Ag Ministry now estimate wheat production at around 4.1-4.2 MMT, down from 4.3 MMT last season and earlier hopes for a crop of 4.5 MMT plus.