Germany: Wheat, winter barley crops expected to drop, spring barley to increase � association of farm cooperatives

Germany's 2020 wheat crop will fall 1.4% on the year to 22.73 million tonnes, the country's association of farm cooperatives said in its second harvest estimate, Reuters reports.

This was down only slightly from 22.79 million tonnes in the first forecast in March.

The association forecast Germany's 2020 winter rapeseed crop will rise 18.4% from last summer's especially poor crop to 3.34 million tonnes. This was down from 3.44 million tonnes in the first estimate partly because rapeseed suffered from late winter frosts in some areas.

Germany is facing an average wheat crop and significantly larger rapeseed crop, the association said.

Germany is the European Union's second-largest wheat producer after France and in most years the EU's largest producer of rapeseed, Europe's main oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production.

Grains had overall developed well in past weeks. But crops in parts of the country, especially areas with light soils, urgently need rain.

Sowing of spring grains is complete apart from grain maize (corn), it said.

The winter barley crop, mostly used for animal feed, will fall 0.9% on the year to 9.67 million tonnes following a reduction in sowings, the association said.

The spring barley crop, used for beer and malt production, will increase 6.1% to 1.94 million tonnes.

The grain maize crop will rise 11.8% to 4.09 million tonnes because of an increased planted area and an expected yield improvement, it said.