Recent rain has given some help to German wheat after a punishing drought this spring but the country's 2011 harvest is still likely to be down on the year, Germany's largest grain trading house Toepfer International said on Thursday. Toepfer estimates Germany's 2011 wheat harvest will fall to between 23-23.5 million tonnes against about 24 million tonnes last year, it said in a market report.
This was marginally up on Toepfer's May crop estimate of 22.8-23.3 million tonnes. "In many parts of Germany, growing conditions for grain and rapeseed have improved slightly due to rainfall since mid-May," Toepfer said. "The predominantly moderate temperatures have also promoted development, but crop losses seem unavoidable."
Poor conditions can be seen particularly for crops in the north German region of Schleswig-Holstein, central and west Germany and in parts of Bavaria in the south, it said. Better yields can be expected in large areas of east Germany including Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg and Sachsen-Anhalt, it said. Toepfer estimates Germany's 2011 rapeseed crop at 4.3-4.7 million tonnes following the drought against 5.7 million tonnes last year. The barley harvest of all types is likely to fall to 9.0 to 9.5 million tonnes from 10.4 million tonnes, it said.
German corn (maize) has benefited from rain in recent weeks, Toepfer said. It estimates the crop at between 4.1 - 4.6 million tonnes, possibly above the 4.2 million tonnes harvested last year. European benchmark wheat prices in Paris fell sharply in the first half of June as rainfall improved crop conditions in some parts of the Black Sea region, Toepfer said.
"Sales from Ukraine and Russia were also recorded," it said. "In international comparisons, the EU continues to remain a competitive exporter," it added. The EU faces more competition in export markets as Russia ends a grain export ban on July 1.