EU Soft Wheat Exports Fall 35% In 2024/25, Maize Imports Up 4%
EU soft wheat exports fell 35% to 20.33 million tonnes, with France dropping to sixth place amid incomplete data and Black Sea competition. Barley exports also declined 20%. Wheat imports dropped 19% to 7.44 million tonnes, with Ukraine remaining the top supplier. Maize imports rose 4% to 19.65 million tonnes, led by shipments from Ukraine and the USA.
European Union soft wheat exports in the 2024/25 season that ended on June 30 totalled 20.33 million metric tonnes, down 35% from 2023/24, data published by the European Commission showed on Tuesday.
EU barley exports in 2024/25 totalled 4.72 million tonnes, down 20% from 2023/24.
Competition from Black Sea supplies and a poor harvest in France curbed EU exports in the past season, though the trend has been amplified by missing data.
The Commission said grain export data for France was incomplete since the beginning of calendar year 2024. Additionally, export data for Bulgaria and Ireland has not been complete since the beginning of marketing year of 2023/24.
A breakdown of 2024/25 soft wheat exports showed Romania was the largest EU exporter with 5.56 million tonnes, followed by Germany with 2.79 million tonnes, Lithuania with 2.60 million tonnes, Latvia with 2.26 million tonnes, and Bulgaria with 2.16 million tonnes.
France, usually by far the EU’s biggest wheat exporter, was in sixth place with 2.05 million tonnes.
Soft Wheat Exports
The main destinations for EU soft wheat exports in 2024/25 were given as follows:
| 2024/25 | 2023/24 | |||
| Destination | tonnes | share | tonnes | share |
| Nigeria | 2,804,406 | 13.8% | 3,414,574 | 11.0% |
| Morocco | 2,655,799 | 13.1% | 4,288,354 | 13.8% |
| Algeria | 1,861,996 | 9.2% | 2,904,596 | 9.3% |
| United Kingdom | 1,247,614 | 6.1% | 807,011 | 2.6% |
| Egypt | 1,192,824 | 5.9% | 1,579,184 | 5.1% |
Maize
In imports, the volume of maize shipped into the EU in 2024/25 totalled 19.65 million tonnes, up 4% from 2023/24.
The main supplier countries for EU maize imports in 2024/25 were as follows:
| 2024/25 | 2023/24 | |||
| Origin | tonnes | share | tonnes | share |
| Ukraine | 10,934,949 | 55.6% | 13,321,256 | 70.2% |
| USA | 3,916,345 | 19.9% | 180,634 | 1.0% |
| Canada | 2,093,965 | 10.7% | 999,978 | 5.3% |
| Brazil | 1,623,698 | 8.3% | 2,805,869 | 14.8% |
| Serbia | 762,956 | 3.9% | 696,049 | 3.7% |
Soft Wheat Imports
EU soft wheat imports totalled 7.44 million tonnes over 2024/25, down 19% from 2023/24.
Traders expect wheat imports to fall more sharply in the 2025/26 season after the EU proposed an annual quota of 1.3 million tonnes for wheat from Ukraine, curtailing free-trade access given to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
The main supplier countries for EU soft wheat imports in 2024/25 were as follows:
| 2024/25 | 2023/24 | |||
| Origin | tonnes | share | tonnes | share |
| Ukraine | 4,491,105 | 60.4% | 6,566,949 | 71.2% |
| Canada | 1,193,146 | 16.0% | 832,083 | 9.0% |
| Moldova | 604,131 | 8.1% | 707,278 | 7.7% |
| Serbia | 538,272 | 7.2% | 333,257 | 3.6% |
| USA | 425,079 | 5.7% | 167,004 | 1.8% |
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Source : ESM
