The worst affected countries were Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, the COPA and COGECA groups said.

"The drought and the heatwave had enormous social, economic and environmental adverse effects," the lobby organisations said.

"Also agriculture in the (EU) candidate countries was particularly hit by drought, putting at risk a large proportion of harvests," they added.

A COPA-COGECA study found that forest fires had destroyed just over 647,000 hectares (1.6 million acres) of woodland, including 390,000 hectaresacres) in Portugal alone.

Jean-Michel Lemetayer, head of the powerful French farmers' union FNSEA and a vice president of COPA, called for more help from the EU to help farmers recover from the ravages of the summer.

"We know very well that these losses can't be made up by subsidies," he told a news conference.

"But isn't there a little more that can be done than is currently foreseen?" he said.

The EU has brought forward subsidies paid out to EU cereal farmers from November to this month, to compensate them for the drought that gripped large parts of Europe over the summer.

TERRA.WIRE