More food grains stockpile in market in June

There were a total of 450 million kilos of cereals in the trade and industry stockpiles at the end of June. Oats had the highest stockpiles. Rye stocks are at a ten-year high, according to the recent statistics of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

There were a total of 450 million kilos of domestic and imported cereals in trade and industry stockpiles at the end of June. This was eight per cent more than a year ago. Oats had the highest stockpiles (142 million kilos). The volume of oats is slightly higher than at the same time last year, said a press release.

Wheat stockpiles totalled 129 million kilos. This is almost 25 per cent higher compared to the amount of the stipulated period in 2017.

“Rye stocks had also grown and they totalled 69 million kilos, which is a ten-year high,” said Sirpa Karppinen, senior statistician of Luke.

At the same time, barley stocks have decreased and they now total 111 million kilos. This means that the volumes have declined by half, compared with the situation in 2016.

A total of 1.9 billion kilos of cereals and 62 million kilos of turnip rape and rape were purchased from farms by domestic industry and grain distributors during the 2017/2018 crop year. A total of 91 million kilos of rye was purchased from farms and this was 20 per cent more than in the previous crop year. Barley and oats accounted for the highest volume sold for trade. The purchases of barley have, however, declined to the levels of the 2012/2013 crop year, amounting to 660 million kilos. A total of 590 million kilos of oats were sold on the market, which was the same amount as in the previous crop year.

“Some 524 million kilos of wheat entered the market from farms in the 2017/2018 crop year, which was a ten-year low. Of this total, some 193 million kilos was classified as bread wheat at the time of purchase, which was 100 million kilos less than in the previous crop year,” Karppinen said.

At the same time, about 330 million kilos of this total was classified as feed wheat at the time of purchase, which was 49 million kilos more than in the previous crop year.

Finnish industry used nearly 1.4 billion kilos of domestic and imported cereals in the 2017/2018 crop year. The feed industry used a total of 627 million kilos of cereals, while the food industry used 421 million kilos and other industries 340 million kilos. Other industrial use includes malting and the production of ethanol, starch, glue powder and enzymes.

The feed industry used wheat, barley and oats in roughly equal amounts. The use of oats as feed increased by 14 per cent from the previous crop year, while at the same time there was a slight decrease in the use of wheat and barley. Wheat accounted for slightly more than half of all cereals used by the food industry. It was followed by rye and oats (about 20 per cent each) and barley (three per cent).