Sweden's wheat crop set to double in recovery from drought

15 Jul, 2019

Sweden's 2019 wheat harvest could rise to about 3.2 million tonnes from only 1.6 million tonnes last year, said Mikael Jeppsson, the head of Lantmannen's grains unit.

"The crop should be large enough to enable Sweden to resume wheat exports," Jeppsson said.

The early harvest last year enabled a record high autumn sowing, he said. As autumn sown crops are higher yielding than spring sown crops, this has contributed to the bigger harvest this year.

Wheat harvesting is expected to start at the end of July or early August. Indications are the harvest will reach a high quality.

"Grain of high quality is of great importance in order to meet demand from both Swedish industry and export customers," he said.

He said the high quality of Swedish grain would help it to be competitive as other Baltic Sea regions were also expected to achieve good harvests.

Copyright Reuters, 2019

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