Production of all cereal crops to decline this year

The harvest of all cereal crops will decrease this year from the previous year, with the rye yield showing the highest relative decrease, according to the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

The rye harvest will not cover domestic consumption of roughly 100,000 tons, while harvests of other crops will cover the domestic consumption.

Cereal crops are being harvested from Finnish fields. The cereal harvest is estimated to be average at roughly 3.4 million tons. Overall, the cereal harvest is expected to remain 15% below last year’s level.

The estimated production of barley this year will be 1.4 million tons, oats 1.1 million tons, wheat 750,000 tons and rye less than 70,000 tons.

“The estimated rye harvest of less than 70,000 tons will not cover annual domestic consumption. In recent years, rye yields have shown significant annual variation, mainly due to changes in cultivation areas. Last year’s peak harvest level of 183,000 tons was preceded by a low yield of 42,000 tons”, said Anneli Partala, senior statistician of Luke.

The estimated oat harvest of 1.1 million tons will decrease by a few per cent from the previous year, while being eight per cent higher than the ten-year average.

In Finland, oats are grown not only for domestic consumption, but also for exports. One third, or more than 400,000 tons, of last year’s harvest was exported. Similar ratios are expected for this year’s oat harvest.

The estimated pea area of roughly 64,000 tons will nearly double from the previous year. The peak level is the result of a historically large cultivation area. The pea area will be higher than the potato area for the first time in the over 100-year history of the statistics.

The potato harvest is expected to be average at roughly 650,000 tons. Potato harvest levels show fairly minor annual variation, regardless of the slow decrease in the potato area year after year.

The oilseed and turnip rape area has decreased in recent years, along with harvest levels. This year’s harvest is expected to be one fifth lower than in the year before, being the lowest in more than 40 years.