Agriculture, Estonia, Good for Business, Markets and Companies

Both the sown area and crop yields have increased in Estonia compared with 2018, it appears from a fresh overview by Statistics Estonia. According to tentative figures, cereals were grown on 364,000 hectares in 2019, including winter crops on 167,000 hectares and summer crops on 197,000 hectares. 

The size of the area sown with cereals has been on a growth trend for a longer period of time now. The last time the sown area was bigger was a quarter of a century ago, in 1993. 

Also yields per hectare have been growing for a longer period of time. In recent years, however, yields have remained quite small due to difficult weather conditions entailing either drought or long periods of rainfall. 

Weather conditions this year have been more favorable of farmers, being comparable with 2015 -- the last time that crop farmers here saw a relatively good year in terms on weather. The average yield per hectare was 4,411 kilograms per hectare in 2015 and 4,486 kilograms in 2019.

Winter crops have seen particularly good yields this year with the average yield of such crops hitting 5,220 kilograms per hectare. The average yield for summer crops was 3,834 kilograms per hectare. 

Of legume vegetables 84% had been harvested by mid-September, of rapeseed and turnip rape 77%  and of potatoes 60%. The yields of rapeseed and turnip rape,l as well as potatoes, are slightly bigger than in 2015 and the yields of legume vegetables slightly smaller than in 2015.

According to a forecast by the Ministry of Rural Affairs, 99%  of the sown area may get harvested by the end of the harvesting period and total crop harvest is estimated to reach 1.59 mln tons, 3% more than in 2015. 

The total harvest of rapeseed and turnip rape is estimated to reach 179,000 tons and the total harvest of potatoes 106,000 tons, which is respectively 10% and 9% less than in 2015.

Statistics Estonia said that data about the harvested amount is not sufficient to draw conclusions about farmers' financial gain from agricultural production, as that depends also on the prices and the costs incurred to get said price.