German farmers have increased plantings of rapeseed and wheat for the summer 2009 harvest, the country's statistics office said on Friday. Rapeseed plantings are estimated to have increased by about seven percent on the year to 1.46 million hectares. Plantings of winter grains of all types have risen by 1.6 percent to 5.82 million hectares. This includes 3.2 million hectares of winter wheat, up 1.3 percent on the year, it said.
Winter barley plantings rose three percent to 1.47 million hectares. Plantings of lower grade grains were almost unchanged on the year, with rye at 740,000 hectares and triticale at 400,000 hectares. "Farmers faced an immensely difficult planting decision this autumn with no crop type really receiving optimistic price forecasts," one analyst said.
"Planting conditions were very good for rapeseed and the price relation to wheat was positive which seems to have encouraged more rapeseed planting." European rapeseed prices were relatively stable in September and October while wheat fell sharply. "Normally rapeseed prices need to be twice those of wheat to make planting worthwhile but in the autumn they were 2.3 to 2.4 times wheat," the analyst said.
Wheat and barley were seen as safe havens as they still qualify for guaranteed prices under the European Union's intervention subsidy scheme. Rye and triticale are excluded from EU intervention. "The rise in barley plantings is more surprising in view of weak feed prices but the prospects of a final EU intervention purchasing season may have been the incentive." The EU is set to abolish subsidised barley intervention purchasing from the summer 2010 crop under its latest round of farm reforms.