Britain's wheat and rapeseed areas seen higher

Britain's wheat plantings are up two percent this year while rapeseed area has climbed 16 percent, according to a survey issued by the home-grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) on Monday.
The HGCA put wheat area in Britain at 1.852 million hectares and rapeseed at 570,000 hectares. Total barley plantings were up two percent at 875,000 hectares with spring barley rising four percent to 492,000 and winter barley unchanged at 383,000 hectares.
Set-aside area dropped five percent to 459,000 hectares. Britain's farm ministry in March said a December survey had shown a 4.5 percent rise in UK winter wheat area and a 16.9 percent increase in winter rapeseed plantings.
Analysts have cited higher wheat prices as the main factor behind the rise in plantings this year with some marginal land brought back into production. The rise in rapeseed plantings partly reflects higher crushing capacity linked to growing use of rapeseed oil by the bifocals sector.