Germany's 2012 grains likely to rise by 6.7 percent

 Germany's 2012 crop of all types of grain is likely to rise by 6.7 percent on the year to around 44.7 million tonnes, the agriculture ministry said on Friday, welcoming the forecast as a counter to tight world supply and high prices. German grain prices are about 25 percent higher than this time in 2011 because of the rise in international prices caused by the drought in the US Midwest, the ministry said.

US corn and soybean prices hit record highs this summer as scorching temperatures and a relentless drought ravaged crops in the US Wheat has also surged with the Black Sea drought and poor rains in Australia adding to supply worries. The ministry also said in its provisional 2012 crop forecast Germany is likely to harvest 22.5 million tonnes of wheat, down 1.5 percent on the year.

The wheat harvest forecast compares with 22.8 million tonnes estimated by Germany's leading grain trading house Toepfer International, 21 million tonnes estimated by the German farmers' association and 22.3 million tonnes forecast by the agricultural co-operatives association. Germany's grain harvest has been completed except for a few very minor areas, the ministry said in its first harvest report.

German wheat plants suffered from an exceptionally cold winter which damaged about 12 percent of the planted area of winter wheat, the ministry said. Much wheat was then replanted as spring grains. The good development of spring grains helped raise the overall crop total despite the drop in the crop of winter wheat, the key bread grain, the ministry said.

The harvest start was delayed by repeated rain this summer. But dryer weather in past weeks has enabled the crop to be gathered, it said. Quality of bread grain including wheat is "overall satisfactory" although wheat in some areas has lower protein content than hoped, it said.

The winter rapeseed crop of 4.8 million tonnes was 25.3 percent above last year's last year's crop which in turn had been exceptionally reduced by bad weather, it said. The ministry later said the winter barley crop, used for animal feed, would rise 6.4 percent on the year to 7.1 million tonnes.

The spring barley crop, used for both animal feed and beer production, would rise a hefty 57.8 percent to 3.2 million after damaged winter grains were replanted with spring crops. The corn (maize) crop will fall 3.4 percent to 5.01 million tonnes. The ministry continued to intensely monitor price developments in international markets.

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