Finland's grain harvest this year is expected to be normal after heavy rains wrecked the 2004 crop, the main industry body said on Tuesday. "It has been raining reasonably in almost the entire country and the grain crop is growing well," the Association of Rural Advisory Centres (ProAgria), said in a statement.
ProAgria said sowings in central and eastern Finland were delayed by three to seven days due to cold spring weather. It also said the spring barley and wheat harvest would come in as normal, as would the autumn wheat harvest. "Grain crops in southern and inland Finland are growing on average in line with a normal timeschedule, but late sowings are clearly lagging behind," said ProAgria spokesman Karol Kinden.
According to the Finnish agricultural ministry a normal grain crop in the Nordic country is slightly below 4 million tonnes, but last year's harvest was a mere 3.6 million tonnes.
"At the moment it seems like we could reach 3.7 million tonnes this year if the favourable weather continues," Anneal Partial, a researcher at the Finnish agricultural ministry, told Reuters.
The ministry will publish a nation-wide survey of farmers' expectation of grain yields on July 28.
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