Given the difficult weather conditions in many regions, the grain harvest in Germany will be noticeably weaker this year.

Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner (CDU) announced on Wednesday.

Safe harvests cannot be taken for granted, she said.

Agriculture has to adapt to climate change.

“The expectations for the harvest were optimistic for a long time.

In many places, however, harvesting work has been and will be slowed down by showers and thunderstorms, which means that yields and quality suffer, ”explained Klöckner.

This is also reflected in the result.

According to preliminary data, an amount of 42.1 million tons is to be expected, according to the harvest report submitted by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday.

That is 2.7 percent less than in the previous year and 4.8 percent less than the average for 2015 to 2020.

Low temperatures and a lot of precipitation

According to the report, winter wheat, the most important type of grain, is showing a harvest volume that is 3.5 percent below the level of the previous year - although the area under cultivation was 4.4 percent larger.

In the case of rapeseed, the previous year's level of around 3.5 million tons is likely to be reached again.

According to the harvest report, fruit growing suffered from long phases with low temperatures in spring, little sunshine and then too much rainfall.

Vegetables also suffered from growth delays due to the low temperatures and problems with harvesting vegetables on time due to the soil being too wet or flooded.

The supply of basic forage such as grass, clover or silage maize, on the other hand, has "improved significantly" compared to the dry previous years, explained Klöckner.

The situation is different in the areas affected by flooding: Here some feed stocks have been destroyed and forage areas become unusable for further use.

The basis of the official harvest report is determined yields for several thousand fields nationwide.

The German Farmers' Association also wants to present its own harvest balance this Friday.