December 6, 2011

Poland's 2011 corn output to reach record level

Due to favourable weather conditions in the second half of 2011, Poland's corn harvest may reach 2.3 million tonnes this year, up from 1.8 million tonnes in 2010, near record-high levels seen in 2004, local analysts said.

Poland's grain production is dominated by wheat, but corn has become popular among local farmers largely owing to a big increase in prices, accompanied by slower growth of production costs.

"We have a lot of corn this season. There was a lot of rain in the summer and it was dry in the harvest period, which is good for corn," said Wieslaw Lopaciuk, an analyst at the Polish Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics.

The crop is mainly used as fodder and - to a much smaller extent - as bio fuel. Poland does not produce enough corn to meet domestic demand and also imports the crop from Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.

"Corn production in Poland could be balanced for the first time in several years," said Izabela Dabrowska-Kasiewicz, analyst at BGZ Bank in Warsaw.

Lopaciuk said Poland's grain harvest, corn excluded, was likely to hit the statistics office's earlier target for 2011 of some 24.1 million tonnes, down 5.5% on-year.

Referring to recent reports from the region indicating drought may cut the 2012 grain crop, Lopaciuk said that need not be the case in Poland if the temperature do not fall too low in the coming weeks.

"Irrespective of whether we have drought or not, sowings are taking place. It is now all about temperatures. If the winter is not severe, it should not be a problem," he said.