BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — In its fourth forecast for the 2018 crop, Coceral on Dec. 4 revised down its E.U. total grain crop forecast from its September figure of 283.5 million tonnes to 281.7 million tonnes.

With much of the region having been plagued by drought this summer, the current forecast is well below last year’s crop when farmers harvested 300.2 million tonnes of grain.

The wheat crop was revised down from 129.9 million tonnes to 128.6 million tonnes, which also would be lower than the 141.9 million tonnes reached in 2017.

The E.U.’s barley production forecast was revised down from 57.4 million tonnes to 56 million tonnes, with reductions mainly seen in Scandinavia. The 2017 crop stood at 58.3 million tonnes.

The E.U.’s corn crop projection was revised up from 58.9 million tonnes to 60.5 million tonnes, with further upward revisions in the Balkan countries. In 2017, production was at 60.7 million tonnes.

The rapeseed production forecast for the E.U. was virtually unchanged at 19.4 million tonnes, which is well below last year’s total of 21.9 million tonnes.

Coceral is the European association representing the trade in cereals, rice, feedstuffs, oilseeds, olive oil, oils and fats and agrosupply.