October 8, 2004

 

 

UK Farmers To Take Advantage Of Rising Demand For Wheat
 

Cereal growers in East Anglia, UK can take advantage of rising world demand for wheat after a very difficult harvest.

 

Tim Pollock, managing director of Grainfarmers, the country's largest grain marketing business, told farmers that record crops in Europe and the United States had coincided with one of the wettest harvests in Britain.

 

Although many growers in Britain had reaped a better than expected harvest after the wettest August for decades, Mr Pollock said that feed wheat prices were £20 per ton lower than last year.

 

The National Farmers' Union, Grainfarmers and Allied Grain have estimated the UK cereal harvest at 21.8 million tons, including 15.8 million tons of wheat and six million tons of barley.

 

Mr Pollock, who was speaking on Tuesday to members of North Norfolk NFU at Holt, said that the outlook for crops planted this autumn was brighter.

 

"We're looking forward to rising demand for wheat. In the US, record tonnages of maize are being processed for ethanol production," he said.

 

While prices have fallen because of the volume of feed wheat varieties grown in Britain, the whole of the northern hemisphere has produced record quality crops.

 

"This has put UK prices under pressure, but it does come after much higher prices last year," he said.

 

Feed wheat varieties are making about £63 per ton compared with £88 last year, although milling wheat - for bread - has fallen by between £7 and £8 per ton.

 

The Larking Gowen Harvest report revealed that a typical 500-acre farmer would lose some £4,235 this year after making a profit of £59,000 last year.

 

The chartered accountants calculated that a profit of £121 an acre would turn into a loss because of higher fuel and grain-drying costs, reduced quality and difficult harvest.

 

Welsh farmer and NFU vice-president, Meurig Raymond, who visited Norfolk in August, praised the tenacity of the industry in salvaging what for some was a difficult harvest.

 

The NFU estimated average wheat yield in England at 7.9t per ha.

 

However, farmers have fared much worse than their continental cousins. It showed a swing away from winter barley - down 6.6 percent - and also the spring barley, down 8.7 percent.

 

Allied Grain's commercial director, Kevin Mills, said the very wet and humid August had impacted badly on production. Europe had already got a quality harvest in the barn before the August storms swept the UK.

 

The EU harvest, including new member states, is 51 million tons up on the drought-affected 2003 crop.

 

"The UK harvest has to be set against the wider EU background. The French crop at 37.5 million tons is almost back on a par with pre-2003 levels, and is generally good quality. The German crop is up almost 25 percent to 25 million tons, and is also generally good in quality."