This year's wheat harvest will break the production record by an even bigger margin than had been thought, a club of the world's biggest grain traders has said.

The International Grains Council raised by 4m tonnes to 676m its forecast for global wheat production, crediting "better than expected" crops in the European Union, Russia and the Ukraine. "[These] more than offset a lower forecast for Australia, where rains are still inadequate," the council said in its monthly report on grains markets.

The increase puts the IGC estimate in line with official US forecasts, and 30 million tonnes above the council's projection for wheat consumption, despite the highest demand for feed wheat for 17 years.

Global wheat stocks would end the year at 153m tonnes, 24% higher than last year.

Feed wheat's growing popularity is coming in part at the expense of corn, which is increasingly being used for making biofuels instead. The IGC expects industrial use of corn, mainly for ethanol, to grow year-on-year by 29m tonnes, or 17%, to 198m tonnes, driving overall consumption of corn to a record 788m tonnes.

The council raised its forecast for overall grain production by 5m tonnes to 1.754bn tonnes, 3.9% higher than last year's figure.