Search: 2010/09

Tike (the Information Centre of the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) has completed the cereals balance sheet for the crop year 2009 – 2010. The good grain harvest in 2009 (4.2 million tonnes), which was the third good harvest in a row, increased Finland’s grain stockpiles at the end of the crop year to a level corresponding to annual consumption. Thus domestic needs would have been covered until late June or early July of next year, even without the 2010 crops. At the end of June, the amount of stockpiled grain, 2.8 million tonnes, was almost 860 000 tonnes higher than a year earlier.

According to the second preliminary crop estimate from Tike, the grain crops will shrink to 2.9 billion kilograms. In mid-July, the crop estimate was slightly higher, approximately 3.1 billion kilograms. The reduced area of land used for grain and the low harvest yield decrease the grain crops by a third from 2009, and the grain harvest will be the smallest in a decade. This crop estimate is based on estimates created by the experts at ProAgria Centres, and it will be specified on 23 November when crop information from farmers will be available.