A significant drop in temperature earlier this month in the European Union caused only minor damage to some winter crops, while it allowed significant improvement in frost tolerance elsewhere, the EU's crop monitor MARS said on Monday.

Crop conditions for next year's harvest are being closely watched at a time when grain and oilseed global supplies are being disrupted by the war in Ukraine.

"The cold spell and the low temperatures in the first half of December allowed an improvement in the level of frost tolerance leading to advanced to fully hardened stages," the crop monitor said.

Hardening is the process whereby winter cereals gain low-temperature tolerance to withstand freezing conditions that occur during the winter dormancy period.

Compared with last year, the hardening process is more advanced than in most parts of Europe, the monitor said.

However, some frost damage was confined to some areas in central and eastern Germany and Poland, they added.

Analysts said that the cold spell in parts of Europe is not expected to cause much harm to winter grains and may benefit crops in France after a very mild autumn.

The Black Sea region's warmer than average temperatures continued to the benefit of late sown crops, but is also leaving crops vulnerable to cold snaps, though no cold wave is currently forecast, the monitor said.

Rain deficits persisted in the Baltic sea region, northern Germany, Poland and south eastern Spain and Turkey, but has not had a substantial impact so far on winter cereals, MARS said.

Drought conditions are still recorded in north western Italy and throughout the Maghreb region which is likely to cause a delay to sowing, they added.

On the other hand, intense rains in Slovenia and Croatia may have locally compromised crop establishment.

The mild temperatures during the autumn resulted in slightly to partially hardening winter crops in most parts of Europe at the end of November, the crop monitor said.

Source - https://www.reuters.com