Record-high rye harvest reported in 2019

For field crops, the 2019 harvest year marked a positive return to normalcy – after all, it was preceded by two successive weak harvest years, according to the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

The total cereal harvest of four million tonnes in the year includes an abundant rye harvest of more than 180,000 tonnes. This is more than sufficient to cover the annual consumption in Finland, being the largest rye harvest in 30 years.

“A rye harvest of 100,000 tonnes is sufficient to cover the domestic annual consumption. This limit has only been reached four times in the 2000s,” said Luke’s Senior Statistician Anneli Partala.

Barley accounts for more than 40 per cent of the total cereal harvest. Of the four main cereals, barley is the least used in food production, if malting is not included.

The significance of barley as the primary cereal is based on its position as the most important source of feed on farms.

The wheat harvest last year reached 900,000 tonnes, being the fourth highest-ever recorded in statistics. As harvest levels doubled from 2018, wheat imports are expected to turn into exports. The significance of oats on our dinner tables and as an export product has increased in recent years. Finland is one of the most important oat producers in the world, and the 2019 oat harvest of nearly 1.2 million tonnes, to be verified later in autumn, will be the second highest in the EU, right behind Poland.

“The harvest levels of peas for human consumption and feed peas were the highest in the 100-year history of the statistics, totalling 33,000 tonnes. Hopefully, this is the point where the production of domestic proteins starts to increase,” Partala said.

In addition to peas, the caraway harvest also reached a new record in 2019. The production and statistical history of caraway is much shorter than that of peas – 14 years. In contrast, the harvest levels of turnip rape and rapeseed were the lowest in 40 years, according to Luke statistics.