Spain: Winter cereal harvest to fall by 37%
Bad news for the EU’s second largest feed manufacturer, the sharp drop in winter cereal harvest meaning that Spain will need to import some six million tons.
According to the farmers’ organization Asaja, it is estimated that this year’s winter cereal harvest will suffer a reduction of more than 4 million tons. This represents a “severe” cut in production from the last three years, when it reached 16.8 tons on average. Mainly drought, but also damage from rabbit pests and weeds have considerably decimated this year’s crop.
The harvest will be almost 13 million tons, which, adding the three maize tons, gives a total of 16 million tons. “We will have to import another six million tons of cereals, to reach the 20 million we need to cover the current demand in our country, considering we are the EU’s second largest manufacturer of animal feed and our meat exports travel around the world”, the sectoral association ACCOE’s spokesman declared.
On a national scale, “there has been a considerable drop in yields, from 3,300 kilos per hectare last year to 2,360 k/ha expected this year”.
The main sector concern keeps being prices, “which are at the same level as 25 years ago, with very high production costs”, leading to a crop change in traditionally cereal regions. This is particularly serious being a deficit country, depending on imports from third countries.
Sources: Asaja and Eleconomista.es