Wheat harvest down

Brussels
Germany’s 2015 wheat crop will fall 4.1 percent on the year to 26.65 million tons only falling slightly from last year’s exceptionally large harvest, the country’s association of farm cooperatives said on Friday.
The association forecast the 2015 winter rapeseed crop will fall 16.6 percent on the year to 5.20 million tons.
Germany is the European Union’s second largest wheat producer after France and in most years the EU’s largest producer of rapeseed, the EU’s main oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production.
The association said Germany’s grain harvest of all types is good but would not quite reach last year’s record harvest at 49.59 million tons in 2015, down 4.6 percent on the year although 7.4 percent above the average in the last five years. The mild winter meant crops had come through without significant frost damage but the exceptionally high yields achieved last year are not likely to be repeated, it said.