In the crop year, the cereal industry and traders purchased a total of 1.8 billion kilos of cereals from farms, which equals 60 per cent of the crop yield of last summer. The industrial use of domestic and foreign cereals totalled 1.4 billion kilos in the crop year, which is one-half of last summer’s crop yield.

Although the crops in summer 2010 were the smallest in the decade, cereals generally entered the market from the farms during the crop year between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2011. The figure is close to the ten-year average. The amount of grain cereals used by Finnish industry totalled 1.4 billion kilos, including cereals imported from overseas. The use of cereals was distributed evenly between various quarters. Consumption was distributed as follows: 43 per cent in the feed industry, 32 per cent in the food industry, 10 per cent in the malting of barley and the remaining 15 per cent in other industrial production.

Barley volumes the highest
In the crop year, barley accounted for most of the cereals entering the market, totalling 666 million kilos, i.e. slightly over one-third of all cereals. The amount equals a half of the barley crops of summer 2010. Most of this was feed barley. During the past ten years, the average amount of barley entering the market has been 798 million kilos per crop year. This equals an average of 43 per cent of annual crop yields. Barley was used most in industry, a total of 605 million kilos. Main part  of this was used as feed.

The total volume of wheat entering the market in the crop year was 603 million kilos, of which slightly over one-half was assessed as bread wheat and the rest feed wheat at the time of purchase. The volume of wheat entering the market corresponds to 83 per cent of the wheat yield of last summer and is slightly above average. During the last ten years, an average of 527 million kilos of wheat per crop year has been sold by farms, which is 74 per cent of the annual crop yields. 456 million kilos of wheat was used in the industry, more than a half of this for food and the rest mainly for feed.

The volume of oats entering the market in the crop year was 478 million kilos, which equals 59 per cent of the total oat crop harvest last summer. The share of crops entering the market is considerably higher than in previous years. The ten-year average for oats entering the market is 507 million kilos. The use of oats in industry was smaller than that of other cereals. Of 204 million kilos of oats, most was used as feed.

Too little rye
In the crop year, 53 million kilos of rye was purchased from farms. Thanks to large crops, the volume has doubled from the previous crop year. The amount equals 77 per cent of the total rye crop of last summer. In the past ten years, an average of 74 per cent of rye of the annual crop yield has been purchased from farms in each crop year, the average volume being 45 million kilos. 98 million kilos of rye was used as food in industry, which is 1.5 times compared with the last summer’s crops.

Statistics on cereals purchased, used and stockpiled by industry and trade have been published in Tike’s Matilda agricultural statistics.

Further information
Tike, Information Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Actuary Sirpa Karppinen, tel. 020 77 21 341
E-mail addresses are in the format: firstname.lastname@mmmtike.fi

The data was obtained from statistics on cereals purchased, used and stockpiled by industry and trade, which is compiled by Tike. Cereal purchase statistics (statistics on entry into the market) is collected quarterly from all companies in Finland purchasing cereals or turnip rape/rape directly from farms. Statistics on the use of domestic and foreign cereals are collected quarterly from the food and feed industry and other branches of industry using cereals.  Statistics about inventories of domestic and foreign cereals and turnip rape/rape are collected semi-annually from all companies that have such inventories at the end of June or December.

The next quarterly statistics will be published on 10 November.