Warm spring weather benefitted crops in most of Europe

These exceptionally warm spring temperatures, combined with adequate water supply, benefitted winter crops and created favourable conditions for the sowing and emergence of spring cereals and summer crops.

Positive yield outlook for the Iberian Peninsula

Weather conditions have been particularly favourable in the Iberian Peninsula, leading to an upward revision of the yield forecast at EU level for durum wheat, spring barley and triticale.

Negative impacts of persistently wet conditions in north-western Europe

However, overly wet conditions in north-western Europe negatively affected the yield potential and hampered sowing; most severely in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Conditions improved somewhat in northern and part of western France, as well as in Belgium, the Netherlands and north-western Germany, but winter crops in inadequately drained fields are unlikely to fully recover from the overly wet conditions during autumn and winter.

Dry conditions negatively impacted the yield potential in some southern regions

Water deficit have been negatively affecting the development of winter crops in Central Greece and Cyprus.

In Sicilia, as well as in eastern Romania rainfall arrived too late or was too little to fully recover the water stressed winter crops.

Severe irreversible drought impact to winter crops is observed in large parts of Morocco and western Algeria.

New features in the edition of the Bulletin

This edition of the JRC MARS Bulletin contains several new features, such as a new approach for the so-called areas-of-concern analysis (on page 2 and 3); a new style and format of the yield forecast maps with a more nuanced legend and bar and pie diagrams, which allow a better understanding of impacts at country level in an EU perspective; and an additional column in all yield forecast tables that gives the change in the forecast compared with the preceding month.

Further information

JRC MARS (Monitoring Agricultural Resources) Bulletins

JRC AGRI4CAST Toolbox

The latest information about global agricultural production hotspots for countries at risk of food insecurity is available on the JRC’s ASAP (Anomaly hot Spots of Agricultural Production).