Wet weather hampers harvesting of cereal crops in Lithuania

“The situation has changed compared with last week as rainy weather has prevailed since last weekend and there has been little headway in harvesting,” Aušrys Macijauskas, chairman of the Lithuanian Grain Growers’ Association, told BNS.

“In some regions, in northwestern and southeastern Lithuania, the situation has become dramatic because of heavy downpours and it remains to be seen if they will manage to harvest the crops,” he said.

Macijauskas said that around 60 percent of the total cereal and rapeseed crop area had been harvested so far, adding that farmers expected weather conditions to improve in the coming week.

“The quality (of grain) is better than last year, when it was very poor, but somewhat lower than the multiannual average. Second-grade grain prevails,” he said.

The association’s chairman said earlier that farmers expected this year’s grain harvest to be slightly larger than last year.

According to Statistics Lithuania, the country’s grain harvest last year declined to 5.71 million tons, down 12 percent from 6.52 million tons in 2015.

Lithuania’s traditional grain export markets include Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Africa and Western European countries. According to the Grain Growers’ Association, around 80 percent of Lithuanian grain is exported.