Agriculture.com (25/10/2018) –

* Analyst firm Strategie Grains has reduced its estimate of the area sown with rapeseed for next year's harvest in the European Union to 6.22 million hectares from an initial outlook of 6.32 million last month.

* That was now 9.5 percent below an estimated 6.87 million hectares harvested in 2018, Strategie Grains said in the slides of a presentation given on Thursday.

* It cited "exceptionally dry sowing conditions" in Europe, where drought since the summer prevented farmers from sowing some rapeseed and has hampered the growth of young plants.

* The firm had previously said rapeseed sowing was also curbed by less attractive prices for rapeseed this year after a rally in cereal markets.

* For this year's EU rapeseed harvest, Strategie Grains reduced slightly its crop estimate, to 19.8 million tonnes from 19.9 million last month, confirming a sharp fall from 22.2 million in 2017, the presentation showed. (Reporting by Gus Trompiz; editing by David Evans)