Wheat price hike convinces farmers to grow more

The current wheat price spike looks like being more effective than the last one in persuading European farmers to grow wheat, with an extra 400,000 acres set to be devoted to the cereal.

Strategie Grains has, in its first detailed sowings estimates for the 2011 harvest, forecast European Union soft wheat plantings at 23.4m hectares.

The figure compares with 23m hectares for this year’s crop, and would beat the 23.3m hectares sown with the cereal as prices ran up to their 2008 peak, when Paris wheat neared E300 a tonne.

And wheat seedings for 2011 would have been even bigger were it not for wet weather in eastern areas which prevented some plantings, the influential analysis group said.

Separately, the European office of broker FC Stone said: “Romanian plantings were impacted by heavy rains despite increased planting intentions.”

At this year’s yield, the additional sowings would produce roughly an extra 2.2m tonnes of wheat.