Germany's overall grain harvest for 2016 will fall 11 percent on the year to 43.5 million tonnes after crops suffered from widespread rain and a lack of sunshine in major agricultural belts, the country's Farmers' Association (DBV) said on Friday. The association forecast Germany's 2016 winter wheat crop to drop 13 percent to 22.9 million tonnes and the rapeseed harvest to decline by 11 percent to 4.5 million tonnes.
Germany is the European Union's second-largest wheat producer after France and competes with France for the position of top EU producer of rapeseed, Europe's main oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production. Wheat crop forecasts in France are also being slashed after disastrously bad weather led to miserable yields and poor crop quality.
German farmers are expected to harvest 9 percent less winter barley, largely used for animal feed, with a crop of 8.7 million tonnes and 11 percent less spring barley, used for beer and malt production, with 1.8 million tonnes, DBV said. The grain maize (corn) crop will drop 7 percent to 3.7 million tonnes and the rye harvest will fall 12 percent to 3.1 million tonnes, the association said.