The grain harvest turns sharply upwards

Published 15 November 2024 at 12.21

Economy. This year's grain harvest amounts to 5.1 million tonnes, which is 18 percent more than last year's unusually low levels. Despite this, the harvest is 6 percent below the average for the past five years.

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A combination of poor conditions during sowing and early summer drought has negatively affected this year's results, according to the Swedish Agricultural Agency.

Autumn sowing in 2023 was hit hard by heavy rains, which led to the failure of sowing of autumn oil plants in several places and many areas had establishment problems. Winter floods and a prolonged spring winter with delayed sowing in Svealand and Götaland were followed by a dry early summer, which further affected crop growth. However, the late summer and early autumn were warmer and drier than usual, which created good harvest conditions.

The rapeseed and turnip harvest is estimated at 289,400 tonnes, a decrease of 5 percent compared to the previous year. The decrease is partly explained by fall canola acreage shrinking by 31 percent due to the large amounts of rain in late summer 2023.

One bright spot is the pea harvest, which is up 36 percent from the previous year and is 10 percent higher than the five-year average. The field bean harvest also shows a 6 percent increase over last year, although it is still 13 percent below the average for the last five years.

Despite the challenges, farmers are reporting good crop conditions in the late summer and early fall, but emphasizes that both wet autumn establishment and the drought earlier in the season negatively affected this year's harvests.