PARIS: A cold, wet start to spring in Europe has hampered sowing of crops such as maize and sugar beet, but delays were not yet serious enough to threaten major yield losses for this year’s harvest, the EU’s crop monitoring service said.

Cold spells and heavy rain in March had also left some winter crops like wheat running behind their usual growth pace although little damage was expected, except potentially to rapeseed crops in Poland, the MARS service said.

In a monthly crop report published on Monday, MARS also pointed to a warmer than usual weather forecast for this week across Europe, which could help fields dry out and boost plant development.

In France, the European Union’s largest crop producer, sowing of spring barley and sugar was about two weeks behind schedule due to wet conditions and was expected to have a negative effect on yields, MARS said in a monthly report.

Yield potential for France’s winter crops, however, did not appear to have been significantly affected by cool temperatures, limited sunshine and frequent rain, it said.

Damp conditions have also led to a slow start to spring sowing in Germany, but field work has accelerated due to improving weather since the start of April, MARS said, adding that winter crop development remained behind schedule in the northern half of the country.

In Spain and Portugal, abundant rain in the first half of March was beneficial for crops after a dry winter, leading to favourable conditions for winter cereals and also replenishing water storage for irrigation of summer crops, it said.

In its yield projections for this year’s harvests, MARS raised slightly its forecast of the average EU soft wheat yield to 6.23 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) from 6.20 t/ha last month, up 1.9 percent from 2017.

It raised marginally its forecast of the EU all-barley yield to 5.03 t/ha from 5.02 t/ha, up 2.8 percent from last year. The revision reflected a slight increase in the winter barley outlook and an unchanged spring barley projection.

In oilseeds, the average EU rapeseed yield was increased to 3.33 t/ha from 3.28 t/ha, now up 2.6 percent versus 2017.

It did not provide separate forecasts for maize or sugar beet.—Reuters