Lithuania’s 2014 grain harvest hits all-time record

“Forecasts last spring were rather grim, but after the end of the year we saw that we managed to grow a record amount of grain. Our specialists forecast nearly 5 million tonnes, while the number has been exceeded and is an absolute record for Lithuania,” said Minister of Agriculture Virginija Baltraitienė.

Over 2014, Lithuanian farmers harvested a total of 5,324,100 tonnes of grain were harvested. Of them, 5,123,200 tonnes were cereal grains, i.e., by 16.6 percent more than in 2013. Based on preliminary data, in 2014, a total of 3.24 million tonnes of grain and 0.4 million tonnes of rapeseed were bought from Lithuanian farmers for EUR 595.6 million. Compared with 2013, grain purchase increased by 9.8 percent, but rapeseed purchase dropped by a fifth.

In the calendar year a total of 3.1 million tonnes of grain were exported from Lithuania, mostly wheat (2.5 million tonnes or 83 percent), and rapeseed (0.33 million tonnes).

Compared 2014 with 2013, export of grain increased by 24.5 percent, while export of rapeseed dropped by 13.2 percent. In 2014 compared with 2013, wheat export increased by 31.6 percent.

Based on preliminary data of Statistics Lithuania, 764,700 hectares of winter cereals and rape were sown for 2015, by 28 percent more than for 2014.