HAMBURG: Germany’s winter wheat sown area for the 2023 harvest has been reduced by 1.4% to about 2.85 million hectares, Germany’s national statistics agency estimated on Friday.

German farmers have partly turned to winter rapeseed, with sowings for the 2023 crop expanded by 7.6% to some 1.16 million hectares, the agency said. Germany is the European Union’s second largest wheat producer after France and a major exporter. It is one of the EU’s largest producers of rapeseed, Europe’s most important oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production.

Sowings by German farmers of winter barley, largely used for animal feed, were raised by 5.2% to 1.27 million hectares, the agency said. Plantings of grain maize (corn), generally for market sales, were cut 6.1% to 429,000 hectares.

Sowings of silo maize, mostly for on-farm use or biogas production, rose 2.1% to 2.06 million hectares. Plantings of rye and other minor winter grains were expanded by 4.0% to 611,400 hectares.

Sowings of spring grains were reduced, partly as Germany’s mild winter meant there was less need to replant other frost-damaged crops. Plantings of spring barley, often used for beer and malt production, were cut 11.2% to 329,300 hectares.