Germany will harvest 23.95 million tonnes of wheat in 2014, down from the 24.87 million tonnes harvested in 2013, Germany's leading grain trader Toepfer International said on Wednesday. This was below the 24.74 million tonnes forecast for the 2014 wheat crop by the German farm co-operative association on Wednesday.
Toepfer said in a market report that welcome rain had fallen in the north German grain belt after a prolonged dry period but southern and western regions were still dry and need more rain. But no damage to crops had yet been noted, it said. Toepfer forecast Germany's 2014 rapeseed crop at 5.43 million tonnes, down from 5.76 million tonnes in 2013. This was also below the 5.54 million tonne rapeseed crop forecast by the farm co-operatives.
Toepfer stressed that German grains and oilseeds were well in advance of their normal growth stages because of the mild winter. Rapeseed is already fully flowering in south and central Germany, Toepfer said. Meanwhile, German and EU wheat exports remained brisk in April, Toepfer said. This was especially true in the German Baltic Sea port of Rostock, which had long waiting periods for loadings, it said.