April 13, 2012

 

Eastern Europe's 2012 grain crops down

 
 

The central and Eastern Europe's winter grain crops have been hit by a cold snap earlier this year followed by dry spring which resulted in the region's reaping fewer grains than a year ago.

 

Farmers, who are forced to replant large areas of winter crops after serious frost damage in January and February, are now hoping for spring rains to help boost yields.

 

Leading grain analyst Strategie Grains cut on Thursday its forecasts for winter grain crop in the whole of the EU due to the impact of frost and drought to 126.8 million tonnes, 2% below last year's harvest.

 

In Poland, EU's fourth largest grain producer, the harsh weather has damaged between 20-30% of the winter grain sowings. Some of it already has been replanted with spring crops, but many fields may be abandoned as farmers lack sowing materials, analysts say.

 

"Preliminary data shows that this could be the worst year in Poland's history in terms of frost-related crop losses," said IzabelaDabrowska-Kasiewicz, agricultural markets analyst at Bank BGZ in Warsaw.

 

"The damage reaches 25-30% - no official statistical data in the past has ever shown such an extent of damage," she said.

 

RafalMladanowicz, the head of the National Federation of Grains Producers said given the severe frost damage it would be optimistic to expect 2012 grain harvest at 20-21 million tonnes. Poland harvested around 24.3 million tonnes of grains in 2011.

 

The winter kill in the Czech Republic was also significant, with areas that needed replanting accounted for about 15% for the wheat area and 27% for the barley, analysts said. An agriculture ministry official said a clear estimate of the damaged fields can be expected at the end of April, but that the crop will be at best an average one.

 

"An average harvest can be expected this year, it will depend on the situation in May. If it is cold with a lot of rain, then we can expect the average," Kust told Reuters.

 

The Czech grains crop stood at 8.2 million tonnes last year. In Hungary, about 44% of the wheat and 39% of the barley were in poor condition due to freezing temperatures and the lack of snow cover, the farm ministry said. Lack of moisture in early spring delayed the plantings' development.

 

"The condition of plantings is below the usual stage of development," the ministry said. "We can say that the April rainfall came in the very last minute."

 

"On that basis, we can presume that last year's harvested amounts cannot be repeated this year," the ministry said.

 

Hungary reaped 4.1 million tonnes of wheat and 990,000 tonnes of barley in 2011. The ministry said a preliminary crop estimate will be made around mid-May. In south Eastern Europe dry spring after cold winter has forced farmers to lower their estimates for the 2012 wheat and barley crops.

 

In Bulgaria, farmers expect a 20% drop in the wheat harvest to about 3.4 million tonnes this year and a 30% drop in barley crop to 470,000 tonnes, the head of the National Association of Grain Producers Angel Vukadinov said. In Romania, frost damage has affected about 30% of the sowings and the 2012 crop is likely to fall below last year's record harvest of 7.2 million tonnes.

 

"Evidently yields will drop, aside from rapeseed, wheat and barley were affected by frost and snow," said cereal farmer MihaiAnghel, who owns 25,000 hectares of farmland.

 

"Clearly, there are no premises for lower prices this year," he said.

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