April 25, 2012

Germany's 2012 wheat crop likely down to 22.2 million tonnes

Toepfer International said on Tuesday (Apr 24) that Germany's 2012 wheat crop is likely to fall to around 22.2 million tonnes from 22.7 million tonnes last year.

Grain plants suffered from the deep frosts during the cold spell in early February and the extent of damage is only now becoming apparent, Toepfer said.

The estimate compares with 21.5 million tonnes forecast by the German farm cooperatives association on April 18. It is well down on the 23.6 million tonnes Germany harvested in 2010.

"In Germany it is now clear that the winter damage caused by the strong frosts in early February have caused considerable need for re-sowing," Toepfer said in a report.

Wheat was especially hit and about 200,000 hectares of German wheat will need resowing, it said. Added to this are about 40,000 hectares of winter barley, above-average areas which have to be re-sowed.

Rapeseed suffered less but about 30,000 hectares will need replanting, it said. Germany's 2012 rapeseed crop is estimated by Toepfer at 4.5 million tonnes against the 2011 harvest of 3.8 million tonnes which had also been sharply reduced by bad weather.

"It is still unclear how much of the areas which need to be re-ploughed will be sown with spring wheat and spring barley or with corn," it said.

"But it is clear that the spring barley area will be considerably expanded compared to last year."

It estimates Germany's crop of spring barley, used for malt and beer production, will rise to 2.3 million tonnes from two million tonnes last year.

It still forecasts the corn crop will fall to 4.8 million tonnes from 5.2 million tonnes last year.