HAMBURG: Germany’s wheat and rapeseed harvests are expected to increase in 2021 as rain helped crops recover from a hot, dry start to the summer, the association of German farmers said.

As well as being the European Union’s second largest wheat producer after France, in most years Germany is the bloc’s largest producer of rapeseed, which is Europe’s main oilseed for edible oil, biodiesel and animal feed meal production.

Germany will harvest about 22.82 million tonnes of winter wheat in 2021, up 5percent on the year, the DBV association said in its first crop report on Wednesday.

Including spring and hard wheat, Germany’s total wheat harvest of all types will reach about 23.13 million tonnes it said. This is up about 4.5percent on the year.

Germany’s 2021 winter rapeseed harvest will rise 6percent on the year to around 3.71 million tonnes, the DBV said. “We expect an average harvest differing regionally,” DBV President Joachim Rukwied said in the report.

After an initial hot start to the summer, crops had benefited from widespread rain in the past two weeks, he said, although in parts of north east Germany, recent hot and dry weather has caused some crop damage. “In many other regions farms are expecting a decent harvest,” Rukwied added.

The harvest of winter barley, generally used for animal feed, is expected to rise 6percent on the year to around 9.34 million tonnes.

The harvest of spring barley, important for malt and beer production, is expected to fall 12percent on the year after reduced plantings to 1.75 million tonnes, the report said.

The grain maize (corn) crop is expected to fall 2percent to 3.93 million tonnes, partly because of a reduction in sowed area.