So far there are no reasons to panic. Although we won’t break any records, we’ll hit quite a lot. Another nuance is the quality of the harvest and the fact that different regions were affected very differently by the rain.
“The yield so far looks a little worse than predicted. Around 80% of rapeseed has been harvested, and only about 15% of wheat so far. Although the harvest in the fields looked very high, both rapeseed and wheat are much finer than average, so this will worsen the result”, – assesses the harvest Karol ŠimasPresident of the Association of Lithuanian Grain Processors and Traders, “Agrokoncerno grains“director.
According to K. Šim, the quality of wheat is much worse compared to the long-standing traditions of our region. Presumably, grain fineness was caused by waterlogging, and grain protein losses were caused by lack of fertilizers. The protein index fell by 1.5-2 percent.
“We have been transporting the entire harvest directly to the port for many years. In this way, we get about 20 euros more per ton than if we add the local elevator. We have trucks, all the necessary infrastructure, we are in Žemaitija”, – says Alfredas Bardauskas, who, together with three colleagues, sows more than a thousand hectares of crops.
However, according to K. Šim, most wheat meets the requirements for food grains, but the deterioration of quality indicators is not only a problem of our region. In Germany, the protein content in wheat decreased by about 1%, in France by more than 0.5%, in Russia it decreased by 1-1.5%. One of the main reasons is the increase in the price of fertilizers, farmers in all regions saved money and there was not enough fertilizer to achieve higher quality.
Delfi provides a more comprehensive analysis and price table.
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