Smaller German 2024 wheat and rapeseed crops forecast

Germany’s 2024 wheat crop will fall 6.5% on the year to 20.14 million metric tons, the country’s association of farm cooperatives said in its first harvest estimate on Thursday.

The association forecast Germany’s 2024 winter rapeseed crop will fall 6.9% from last year’s crop to 3.93 million tons.

The main reasons for the expected fall are reduced planted areas following unfavourably rainy autumn weather and increased competition for land from other uses such as building housing and expanding renewable energy production including solar power panels, the association said.

Continued rain hitting crops means the EU 2024 soft wheat harvest is expected to fall , French consultancy Strategie Grains said on Thursday.

Germany is the European Union’s second largest wheat producer after France and in many years the EU’s largest producer of rapeseed, Europe’s main oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production.

Germany’s grain and rapeseed crops had not suffered seriously from frost damage so far this winter but repeated rain with flooding in some areas meant some fields had to be re-sowed, the association said. However, drier weather means farmers are now able to undertake field work such as fertilizer spreading and spring sowings.

German farmers are estimated to have reduced wheat sowings for harvesting this summer by 5.9% on the year to 2.70 million hectares, it said.

Farmers are estimated to have cut winter rapeseed sowings for harvesting this summer by 4.8% on the year to 1.11 million hectares.

Germany’s winter barley crop, mostly used for animal feed, will fall 4.0% on the year to 9.23 million tons, the association said. The spring barley crop, often used for beer and malt production, will fall 11.6% to 1.77 million tons.

The grain maize (corn) crop will fall 6.5% to 3.94 million tons, it said.

Tags: wheat, rapeseed, Germany