Fall in winter planting results in lowest UK wheat harvest since 2001

The UK wheat harvest, historically the European Union’s third-largest, may be the smallest this year since 2001 after winter crop planting decreased, the government said.

Farmers are likely to gather 12.1 million metric tons of the grain, the country’s main arable crop, down 8.7% from 13.26m tons last year, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said yesterday in its first forecast for 2013 grain production. Barley output may jump 29% to 7.1m tons, the biggest crop since 1997.

The UK saw its second- wettest year on record in 2012, according to the Met Office, slashing the quality of last year’s wheat and preventing farmers from planting winter grain and rapeseed crops that were harvested this year. Farmers instead boosted planting of spring crops, including barley and oats, after the weather became more dry since the beginning of 2013, said Jack Watts, a senior analyst at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board in Kenilworth, England. “Last year we had a small crop with poor quality,” Mr Watts said in an interview at the European Commodities Exchange in Paris.