March 6, 2009

Germany's grain crop in summer 2009 may fall 4.6 percent on-year to 47.5 million tonnes from the bumper 49.8 million tonnes in 2008, the association of German farming cooperatives said Thursday (Mar 5).

The association said 5.48 million tonnes of rapeseed are expected to be harvested in 2009, up from 5.2 million tonnes last year, and that the grain crop is still seen as good from a long-term view despite the expected harvest decline.

No crop damage has been reported despite the long and sometimes tough winter, and plantings look good in most regions following the melting of snow cover, the association said.

However, wet fields indicate that some farmers were unable to start ground work including fertiliser application.

Grain yields are expected to fall 3.3 percent on-year to 6.87 tonnes per hectare, while total grain area is seen to drop 1.3 percent to 6.9 million hectares.

German farmers turned to planting the higher-priced rapeseed after grain prices fell. Rapeseed plantings are estimated to have increased by 4.8 percent on-year to 1.462 million hectares, and yields were forecast to increase 0.02 tonnes from last year to 3.75 tonnes per hectare.

The association forecasts Germany's 2009 winter wheat crop to fall 4.7 percent on-year to 24.4 million tonnes, while the barley crop is likely to increase 2.2 percent to 9.58 million tonnes.

The corn crop is projected to fall to 4.15 million tonnes in 2009 from 4.94 million tonnes last year.

Corn plantings fell about 1.45 percent partly due to the EU curbing its intervention subsidies for corn.