(Reuters) - World output of wheat and other cereals will fall 3 percent to 2.219 billion tonnes in 2009 after record 2008 crops due smaller planted areas and weaker yields, the U.N. food agency said on Thursday, raising its earlier forecasts. Cereals consumption is expected to grow at a slower pace than last year and a decline in new crops is seen offset by strong stocks carried over from last year, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in its Food Outlook report.
That means overall cereals supply will be suffcient to meet demand, the FAO said. [nL4320234]
Following are key details from the report:
COMMODITY 2009/10 2008/09 ENDING STOCKS
OUTPUT FORECAST ESTIMATE 2009/10
(MLN TONNES)
TOTAL CEREALS 2,218.8 2,287.2 520.9
WHEAT 655.8 684.6 192.4
COARSE GRAINS 1,098.5 1,142.3 201.4
RICE 464.5 460.3 127.2
2008/09 2007/08
OILSEEDS 405.9 403.1 n/a
SUGAR 158.5 167.6 76.3
2009 2008
MEAT 285.6 282.1 n/a
DAIRY 699.0 687.7 n/a
In April, FAO forecast total cereals output at 2.217 billion tonnes this year and wheat output at 655 million tonnes . (Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova, Editing by Peter Blackburn)