In France, the European Union's biggest agricultural power, months of severe drought have threatened farm production countrywide, with grain yields down and hundreds of thousands of chickens dead due to the blistering temperatures.

The EU's two leading lobby groups for farmers, COPA and COGECA, said the drought has created "truly catastrophic consequences for farmers and the agricultural sector".

In a letter to the European Commission and EU member states last month, the groups appealed for community funds to be released to support farmers, "the victims of this natural disaster".

The hot weather, combined with the drought, has left Europe's farmers in dire straits: the German Farmers' Federation (DBV) puts the expected loss in the grain sector alone at one billion euros (1.1 billion dollars) this year.

Electricity and water shortages are compounding the problems facing cultivators, as are forest fires that have ravaged more than 250,000 hectares (617,500 acres) of land in Croatia, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

Across the EU, grain yields are set to fall 5.7 percent from last year to 197 million tonnes, according to COPA and COGECA. Last year's grain production was already down because of devastating floods in central Europe.

According to the French national grain producers' union, production in 2003 is likely to plunge 15-35 percent from last year.

Livestock are also suffering: last week alone, one million chickens died on farms across France, up from 300,000-400,000 deaths in previous weeks, according to industry figures.

Germany is facing an 11.5 percent fall in the grain harvest compared to 2002, when major flooding in the south and east of the country had already hit production.

In certain areas of Brandenburg, the eastern state surrounding Berlin, farmers are expecting an 80 percent year-on-year decline in the grain harvest, the DBV said.

An official for one of Spain's main farmers' unions said losses in the country's agriculture sector could total 800 million euros.

The main Italian farmers' union, Coldiretti, has warned that drought in five regions in the north and six in central Italy has put olive, wine, grain and fruit harvests in jeopardy.

In the Lazio region alone, which includes Rome, the drought has sparked a 40-50 percent drop in olive production, a 35 percent drop in kiwi production, and a 40-100 percent loss of the peach, apricot, plum and grape harvests.

Consumers are already feeling the pinch. A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of peaches, nectarines or plums is fetching an unheard-of three euros on the Trionfale market in central Rome.

France's truffle harvest is at particular risk -- producers in the country's southeast and southwest say the searing heat has destroyed the prized and pricey fungi, which normally would have matured in the autumn.

Not everyone is complaining. Vineyards in southeast England, not ordinarily one of the hotspots of the wine industry, are anticipating their best vintage ever.

"They (grapes) are a Mediterranean crop and we have been enjoying Mediterranean weather, so we couldn't ask for any more," said Will Davenport, owner of the Davenport Vineyards in Kent and East Sussex.

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TERRA.WIRE