Germany's grain harvest to fall

Germany's 2015 grain harvest suffered from recent dry weather and is likely to be below last year's exceptionally large crop but still reach an average size, the DBV German farmers association said on Tuesday. The German grain harvest will total about 47.1 million tonnes in 2015, down about 11 percent on last year but just above the average of 46.8 million tonnes between 2009 to 2014, the DBV said in a harvest report.
Germany's 2015 winter wheat harvest is expected to fall by 8.3 percent on the year to 25.12 million tonnes and the winter rapeseed crop by 20.5 percent to 4.96 million tonnes, the association said. Germany is the European Union's second-largest wheat producer and exporter after France and in most years is the EU's largest producer of rapeseed, Europe's main oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production.
The crop of winter barley, used for animal feed, will drop by 10.3 percent on the year to 8.52 million tonnes and the spring barley crop, used for beer and malt production, will drop 7.9 percent to 1.90 million tonnes, it said. The grain maize crop will fall 7.2 percent to 4.77 million tonnes, it said. "Only average yields are expected in the grain harvest, which is starting in coming days," DBV President Joachim Rukwied said in the report. "In the spring months many regions had intense dryness, which will not permit top yields."
Winter barley, used for animal feed, suffered especially from the spring dryness, the report said. But barley development differs regionally, with central and east Germany suffering dryness stress while better results expected in other regions. Germany's grain harvest traditionally starts with winter barley being gathered in the south-west region. Germany's winter rapeseed crop has suffered from dryness and greater insect damage after EU restrictions on neonicotinoid plant protection chemicals, it said. The EU has restricted neonicotinoid use mainly to protect bees. The rapeseed forecast is in line with an estimate on June 17 from German farm co-operatives of a 20 percent fall to 4.9 million tonnes.