CANADA (18 September)
Predominantly hot and dry conditions during July and early August have diminished prospects for the main 2003 cereal crops, but production is still expected to turn out much higher than last year’s drought-reduced level. The latest official figures issued in mid-September, with the harvest already well under way, forecast the country’s 2003 wheat crop at about 21 million tonnes, down 700 000 tonnes from the forecast a month earlier but still 34 percent larger than the poor crop in 2002. Barley output was forecast at some 12 million tonnes, compared to just 7.3 million tonnes in 2002.