Tike, the Information Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, has completed the cereals balance sheet for the crop year 2007 - 2008. During the crop year, 3.4 billion kilograms of cereals were used in Finland. Of this amount, 63% was used for fodder and 14% for food. Thanks to the good cereals harvest in 2007 (4.1 billion kilograms), 720 million kilograms could be exported. Production for the most part covered domestic needs, but 57 million kilograms of rye had to be imported for food milling.

Over half of the cereals harvest used for fodder, amounting to 2.1 billion kilograms
Finnish livestock eat about 1,500 million kilograms of fodder cereals that are grown on the farms and about 600 million kilograms of domestic cereals in the form of industrial feed; these volumes remain consistent from year to year. 1,200 million kilograms of our barley crop – our most important fodder cereal – were used in livestock production. Close to 650 million kilograms of our oat crop – our second most important fodder cereal – were fed to livestock. Fodder represented 63% of the cereals used in Finland (3,400 million kilograms).

459 million kilograms of cereals used for foodstuffs

459 million kilograms of cereals were used for foodstuffs during the crop year. The bulk of this amount, 290 million kilograms, comprised wheat; 100 million kilograms of rye were milled. The share of imported rye used in bread production declined from last year’s figure of 70% to about 55%, as the domestic rye harvest was higher in 2007 (87 million kilograms) than in 2006. The use of oats in foodstuffs is still on the rise, amounting to 60 million kilograms. All told, of the 3,400 million kilograms of cereals consumed, 14% went for foodstuff production.

720 million kilograms of domestic cereals exported
Thanks to the good cereals harvest, 720 million kilograms could be exported. The last time over 700 million kilograms were exported was in the 1994/1995 crop year. Oats comprised the bulk of exports, just under 370 million kilograms. Barley exports totalled approximately 240 million kilograms. Cereal imports amounted to about 80 million kilograms, of which 57 million kilograms were rye and 20 million kilograms wheat.

Close to half of the annual grain demand in storage

On 30 June 2008, at the end of the crop year and before the harvest of the new crop, the total amount of stockpiled grain in Finland was 1,490 million kilograms. This represents about half a year’s consumption. The greatest amount of cereals is kept in stock by farms for use as livestock fodder. Large cereal stocks are also maintained by the National Emergency Supply Agency to safeguard the national food supply. The amounts of wheat and rye in storage are sufficient for an entire year, if used for human consumption only.

The cereals balance sheet (crop year 1 July 2007 – 30 June 2008) is based on Tike’s statistics on crop production and use of crops on farms, information provided by domestic industrial enterprises in the food and feed sectors and other industrial enterprises utilising grains, and on the foreign trade statistics of the National Board of Customs. The National Board of Customs confirms the data for the calendar year by the end of April of the following year. It is thus possible that the foreign trade statistics for 2008 may be revised.

Additional information
Researcher Anneli Partala, tel. +358 (0)20 77 21376
All email addresses are formed: firstname.lastname@mmmtike.fi