Germany: Grain harvest, quality affected by repeated rainfall

The grain harvest in Germany has been delayed so far due to repeated rainfall, Toepfer International analysts communicated last week.

The harvest progress in Germany is heterogeneous, depending on the weather situation. On the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, for example, 75% of the wheat fields were harvested by mid-August, whereas on the east coast and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, only approx. 15-20% had been harvested.

The rainfall in August did not only negatively impact the harvest progress, but also the quality of the grain. There are great differences from one region to another, which range from near normal quality to significantly reduced quality. Additional rain could increasingly damage the quality of the grain and could lead to a higher amount of feed wheat, Toepfer analysts said.

According to Toepfer estimates, the grain harvest in Germany should, with almost 44 million tons, be much lower than the 50 million tons in the previous year: wheat 23.4 (25.2) million tons, barley 10.3 (12.3) million tons, including spring barley 1.7 (2.2) million tons, corn 4.3 (4.6) million tons, rye 3.1 (4.1) million tons, oats 0.7 (0.8) million tons and triticale 2.2 (2.5) million tons.

The grain exports for the period from July 2009 to May 2010 amounted to 12.0 million tons compared to 12.3 million tons exported in the same period of the previous year. 6.5 (6.7) million tons were exported to other EU countries and 5.6 (5.7) million tons to non-EU countries.

The barley exports reached 900,000 tons (1.7 million), whereas imports totalled 862,000 tons (1.1 mln), it is reported.

In July 2009 – May 2010, Germany imported 246,000 tons (251,000) of malt, Toepfer estimate.

01 September, 2010