Europe's rapeseed harvest may set a record even more convincingly had been thought, according to estimates from grain lobby group Coceral, which has hiked its output estimate by 12%.

Production this year will come in at nearly 20.6m tonnes, a rise of 1.6m tonnes on last year's record harvest, the Brussels-based group said.

The figure also beats a 20.3m-tonne forecast by Oil World, the Germany analysis group, and the US Department of Agriculture, which has pegged the crop at 20.0m tonnes.

The improvement reflected in particular better crops in France, Germany and Poland, the European Union's three biggest growers.

The crop in the UK, the EU's fourth-ranked rapeseed producer, was pegged at 1.77m tonnes, 200,000 tonnes below both estimates on Friday from the country's farmers' union and last year's crop.

Wheat forecast lifted 

Coceral also raised its forecast for production of soft wheat by 2.3m tonnes to 130.9m tonnes, taking its estimate for the total crop to 139.6m tonnes.

The USDA has pegged EU wheat production at 138.5m tonnes.

The report put the French harvest at 37.5m tonnes, Germany's at 25.0m tonnes and the UK's at 14.2m tonnes, a figure also higher than farmers' estimates.

The data helped keep a lid on wheat prices in Paris, where the November contract stood E0.25 lower at E123.50 in late trade.

London wheat for November stood up £1.00 at £99.75 in afternoon trade, helped by weaker sterling.