German farmers lobby fears winter damage to grains

Arctic-style weather earlier this winter in Germany has damaged German grain plants in some regions but the country was still on course for a good to average cereals harvest, the German Farming Association said on Wednesday. German farmers have suffered crop losses because of frosts and some areas will have to be reseeded, the association said in a statement.
"We are still on course for a good to average crop," an association spokesman said. The association has not yet made a forecast for the 2012 harvest. In its first estimate of the season on March 8, German farm co-operatives forecast that Germany's 2012 wheat crop of all types would rise 6.3 percent on the year to 24.2 million tonnes from the weather-damaged 22.7 million tonnes in 2011, but observers expect the co-operatives to reduce the forecast in its next estimate in April. Frosts of minus 20 degrees Celsius were recorded in some German grain belts in late January and early February. Some wheat and barley areas without enough snow cover will have to be reseeded, the farmers' association said.