MADRID - "Spain's drought-hit wheat crop is expected to shrink by a third from last year and the barley harvest by 40 percent, Agriculture Ministry data showed on Monday. Figures were based on data collected in April, before the harvest started and before dry weather in the crucial month of May. Both estimates were revised down from calculations made a month ago.
One farmers' union said in some southern areas, where the harvest started in May, the drought had reduced yields so much that the grain was not worth harvesting. Ministry data put the wheat harvest at 4.75 million tonnes, down 33 percent year-on-year. Last month the ministry estimated the overall wheat crop at 5.06 million tonnes.
Durum wheat -- grown mainly in the sun-scorched south -- was estimated down 58 percent year-on-year at 1.15 million tonnes. Soft wheat was seen off 18 percent at 3.60 million tonnes.
The barley harvest was now seen at 6.37 million tonnes, down 40 percent year-on-year and below last month's 7.95 million tonnes."
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http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31135/story.htm
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