Fall in winter planting results in lowest UK wheat harvest since 2001
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.
“This year it’s still a small crop, but the quality is much improved. Normally we have some of the cheapest feed wheat in Europe, but this year we may be one of the most expensive.”
Feed-wheat futures on NYSE Liffe in London climbed to a record last year amid rallies in crop prices worldwide following drought in the US, the world’s biggest corn grower and exporter. Feed wheat for delivery in November traded at £162.75 (€192) a ton yesterday, up 8.5% from a low on Sept 18.
Defra is also set to release estimates of wheat and barley yields and crop area shortly, as well as figures for other grains and rapeseed. The agency is scheduled to update its balance sheet to include grain-demand estimates on Nov 27. France and Germany are the EU’s biggest wheat producers.
UK wheat imports will drop to 1.41m tons, 52% less than the previous season, the AHDB said.
