Harvest is generally complete in central and eastern England and as far north as North Yorkshire, but southern England and Scotland still have crops to cut.

Mark Worrell, director of sales and trading at Openfield, said the cereal harvest was no more than 50% complete in north Scotland.

“And parts of the south of England – such as Hampshire – still have crops in the field.”

While average wheat yields were lower than the past couple of years, they were better than expected, he said.

“There is considerable variation across the UK – more so than we have seen over the last 10 years – mainly due to soil type.”

But quality was also better than had been feared, given the wet harvest, with even some later cut crops meeting milling specifications.

“The whole milling wheat complex across the EU is generally well supported, following loss of quality due to wet weather in North Germany and Scandinavia,” said Mr Worrell.

“There is healthy demand for UK grain from abroad and knowing the quality of wheat is imperative to effective marketing this season.”