Poland's grain production to take a downturn

Polish grain production this year is expected to decrease 8% to 27.3 million tonnes.

"First of all, yields are lower. We cannot count on them being as high as they were last year. Such years rarely happen in my opinion," said Wieslaw Lopaciuk, an analyst from the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics.

In 2009, Poland reaped a total crop of 29.8 million tonnes, with an average yield of 3.48 tonnes per hectare, and the area sown reached 8.6 million hectares, according to data from the statistics office.

Last year, Poland experienced volatile weather conditions throughout the season, but the initial fears of a spring drought cutting on the total grain crop did not materialise, and the harvest reached its highest level since 2004. The average yield in 2010 is expected to be 3.24 tonnes per hectare, with 8.4 million hectares of the area sown to grains.

Lopaciuk estimated that the wheat crop will reach 9.2 million tonnes, and corn 1.7 million tonnes.

"There is a delay, however, which will unfavourably affect yields. It's due to the weather and frozen grain buds," he said. "In some parts of the country, grain buds were frozen, but roots remained healthy, and everything rebounded. Now we can see it's getting green and not black in the fields."

The Polish Grain Chamber, a leading grain producer group estimated 2010 grain output will reach 28 million tonnes, with an average yield of 3.3-3.4 tonnes per hectare, and the area sown to grains at 8.2 million hectares.