German wheat harvest seen down, rapeseed up

Germany's 2018 wheat harvest will fall 1.1 percent on the year to 24.21 million tonnes after poor weather restricted sowings, the country's association of farm cooperatives said on Thursday in its first forecast of the country's new crop. The association forecast Germany's 2018 winter rapeseed crop will rise 9.5 percent on the year to 4.67 million tonnes. Germany is the European Union's second largest wheat producer after France and in most years the EU's largest grower of rapeseed, Europe's main oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production.
Unfavourable autumn weather in Germany prevented some farmers from carrying out their wheat planting intentions, the association said. This was particularly the case in northern and parts of eastern Germany, which contain some of the country's largest wheat growing regions. But grains seem to have survived the bitterly cold double-digit frosts of late February and early March without major damage, it said. The rapeseed harvest is expected to recover strongly from last year's particularly small crop.
But the recovery could have been stronger if poor autumn weather had not disrupted sowings, it said. This year's crop will still be below the five-year average of 5.2 million tonnes. As a result, the association expects a big expansion of spring grain sowings. This will help prevent a more serious fall in the overall 2018 harvest, especially for wheat. German winter wheat sowings are estimated to have been reduced by 4.7 percent on the year to 2.9 million hectares.
But spring wheat plantings are expected to rise by a massive 234 percent to 140,700 hectares, it said. German farmers have also planted more spring barley, used for malt and beer production. The spring barley crop is expected to increase by 13.5 percent on the year to 2.08 million tonnes. The winter barley crop, used mostly for animal feed, will rise 0.7 percent on the year to 9.08 million tonnes.
The grain maize (corn) crop will fall 6.1 percent to 4.27 million tonnes, the association said.