According to the crop monitoring in Europe Bulletin, major parts of central and western Europe benefited from favourable end-of-season conditions, which helped advance the harvesting of summer crops and sowing of winter crops. However, in large parts of northern Europe, the sowing of winter crops (which had already been delayed by the late harvesting) was further hampered by excessively wet conditions. In the Baltic countries and Finland, excessive rains also compromised the harvesting of spring crops.
In contrast, the drought continues in the Iberian Peninsula, and rain is needed in the coming weeks to raise soil moisture levels, to allow seedbed preparation, and to create favourable conditions for the germination and emergence of newly sown crops. Winter cereal sowing is already delayed in Morocco and Algeria, where rainfall in September and October was also very low. A significant rain deficit also exists in southern France, western Italy and Greece, where sowing activities usually start in November.
According to the MARS Bulletin global outlook - Kazakhstan, hot and dry weather conditions in the eastern half of the country resulted in an inadequate water supply for spring cereals. Consequently, the previously optimistic yield forecast for spring wheat and spring barley was revised downwards but remains above the five-year average. The yield expectations for winter wheat (which escaped the drought) and grain maize (which is irrigated) are also above average