German grain harvest higher despite floods

Germany, Europe's second-biggest grain producer after France, reported a 3.0-percent increase in its harvest this year, despite the bad weather and flooding, data showed on Thursday. The German farmers' association DBV calculated that this year's grain harvest amounted to 46.8 million tonnes, an increase of 3.0 percent of the previous year and also higher than the annual average for the period from 2008 until 2012. "We weren't expecting a record harvest by a long chalk. So we can actually be satisfied with 46.8 million tonnes of grain," the association's grain expert Wolfgang Vogel said in a statement. The unusually long and cold winter meant that crop development was delayed by between two and four weeks, depending on the region. But the good weather from June helped counteract this. The rapeseed harvest was up 17 percent at 5.6 million tonnes, DBV said. The situation for vegetables and fruit was more mixed, with the apple and strawberries down, but an increased harvest for cherries, plums and pears. The hops harvest was likely to very bad, DBV warned. With potatoes, where Germany is Europe's leading producer, farmers were pessimistic, with the harvest still underway. The harvest looked unlikely to attain 10 million tonnes, compared with 10.6 million tonnes last year. Parts of Germany, particularly in the east of the country, were hit by catastrophic flooding at the beginning of June.