July 6, 2012

Germany expects below average 2012 grain crop

Following an especially cold winter and very dry spring weather, Germany is likely to have a below-average grain crop in 2012, German farmers association DBV said on Thursday (July 5).

Frost damage to crops means German farmers expect to harvest 2.9 million hectares of winter wheat, about 10% down on the 3.2 million hectares harvested in 2011, DBV president Joachim Rukwied said in a harvest report.

"The reduced harvest area of the most important crops winter wheat and winter barley and only moderate yield expectations mean that only a below-average harvest is expected in 2012," Rukwied said.

German farmers originally increased their wheat sowings for the 2012 harvest by 2%, he said. But wheat was affected repeatedly by rain in June, he said. Germany is the EU's second largest wheat producer after France.

"The association expect a winter wheat yield of about 7.5 tonnes per hectare, about 6% below the long-term average between 2005-11," he said. "This would be about the same as the low yield level seen last year."

Rapeseed has also suffered from frost and the DBV expects a harvested area of 1.3 million hectares, unchanged on the year.

"A higher (rapeseed) yield is expected than last year but still under the long-term harvest average of 5.5 million tonnes," it said.

Winter barley also suffered from extensive winter damage, the DBV said. Frost caused a cut in the winter barley area to be harvested by 8% to about one million hectares.

In the last detailed German harvest estimate from a major domestic player, Germany's leading grain trading house Toepfer International on June 22 raised its forecast of the country's 2012 wheat crop to 22.71 million tonnes from 21.4 million tonnes it estimated in May. This would make the crop slightly above the 22.70 million tonnes harvested in 2011.