Cereal stocks nosedive

There were a total stock of 400 million kilos of domestic and imported cereals in trade and industry at the end of June 2019, according to the latest statistics from the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

This is nine per cent less than that in the previous year and the lowest amount since 2012, said Luke in a press release.

The largest stocks were of barley at a total of 141 million kilos. Oat stocks amounted to 115 million kilos, with wheat stocks of 99 million kilos and rye stocks of 54 million kilos.

During the 2018/2019 crop year (1 July 2018–June 2019), the domestic cereal industry and distributors purchased a total of 1.6 billion kilos of cereals directly from farms. This amount was over 0.2 billion kilos less than that in the previous crop year. This is likely to have been a factor in the smaller total grain crop in 2018, which was 2.7 billion kilos. The poor summer had the biggest impact on wheat and rye yield.

The amount of barley purchased was 655 million kilos, the same amount as in the previous crop year. As much as 543 million kilos of oats were sold on the market, which is eight per cent less than that in the previous crop year. A total of 63 million kilos of rye were purchased from farms, 16 per cent less than that in the previous crop year.

A total of 371 million kilos of wheat was purchased from farms, less than that in the previous crop year. At the time of purchase, 169 million kilos of this amount were classified as bread wheat, meaning 13 per cent less than that in the previous crop year. The feed wheat yield was 202 million kilos or 39 per cent less than that in the previous crop year.

“Producer prices of cereals are monitored monthly, and the results show that prices of all cereals increased in the autumn of 2018. The difference between the prices of bread wheat and feed wheat decreased,” said Luke Senior Statistician Sirpa Karppinen.

Producer prices declined slightly in spring 2019. In June, the average basic price for bread wheat and feed barley were EUR 194 and 170 EUR per tonne respectively. The price of bread wheat was 14 per cent higher than that in the previous year, and the price of feed barley was 15 per cent higher.

Finnish industry used a total of nearly 1.3 billion kilos of domestic and imported cereals in the 2018/2019 crop year. This amount is 59 million kilos less than that in the previous crop year.

Consumption is calculated according to the first use of the cereal. The feed industry used 563 million kilos of cereals, slightly less than in the previous crop year. The food industry used 428 million kilos of cereals, and other industries used 339 million kilos. Among other industrial uses of cereals are the production of malt, ethanol, starch, glue powder, and enzymes.

The cereal most used in the feed industry was barley, at 38 per cent. The rest of the cereal consumption consisted of wheat and oats, with the feed industry using equal amounts of each. The use of wheat and oats for feed decreased from the previous crop year, by 29 million kilos and 42 million kilos respectively. Half of the cereal used in the food industry was wheat, a quarter was oats, two per cent was barley, and the remainder was rye.