EU sugar output seen down after slide in plantings

* French, German yields seen down year-on-year

* UK yields seen broadly in line with 5-year average

By David Brough

LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - European Union sugar production is expected to be down this year compared with 2014 after a sharp drop in beet plantings, with yields forecast to be lower in most leading producers.

France is set for a smaller harvest this year after growers planted less of the crop and hot, dry weather this summer curbed yield potential.

Like other spring-sown crops, sugar beet suffered from heatwave temperatures and drought at the start of summer, although rain in August brought some relief to plants.

"The growing season started very well with early plantings and good spring development, and then we had the drought, particularly to the east of Paris, which hurt crops in shallow soils," Alain Jeanroy, director of beet growers group CGB, said.

The CGB sees the average yield, assuming 16 percent sugar content, at around 88 tonnes per hectare, down from 93 tonnes a hectare in 2014 but close to the average of the past five years.

Taken with its estimate of a planted area of 382,000 hectares, it expects output to reach 33.6 million tonnes, down from last year's 37.9 million.

Germany expects a smaller crop after last year's record harvest with planted area and yields down from last year's exceptionally high levels, said Guenter Tissen, CEO of sugar industry group WVZ.

"But it is not a disaster -- yields will be within the five-year average," he said.

Germany will harvest 20.16 million tonnes of sugar beet for local processing, down about 7.4 million tonnes from last season, the WVZ estimates.

German farmers have planted 289,000 hectares of beet for this year's harvest, down about 67,000 hectares year-on-year.

Poland's beet crop is likely to fall to around 8.5 million tonnes from 13.5 million tonnes last year because of lower yields and a reduction in plantings, said Rafal Strachota of beet growers' association KZPBC.

"The main reason is the drought that occurred throughout the country," Strachota said.

Polish farmers cut sugar beet plantings by about 12 percent on the year to 171,000 hectares for the harvest about to start largely because of large stocks.

In Britain, this season contracted tonnage was reduced by 20 percent to manage down large sugar stocks following a record crop yield in 2014, said Colm McKay, Agriculture Director of British Sugar.

"The yield prospects for the 2015 crop are generally good with current indications suggesting yields broadly in line with the five-year average."

The volume of sugar being carried forward in the EU from the 2014/15 season to 2015/16 is close to 3 million tonnes, said Ruud Schers, analyst with Rabobank. (Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris, and Michael Hogan in Hamburg; Editing by Mark Potter)