Cereal, potato, pea and caraway production in 2023 sufficient to cover domestic consumption

According to the crop production statistics of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), the cereal harvest of roughly three million tons in 2023 was 16 per cent below the ten-year average. Nevertheless, it is estimated to cover domestic consumption for one year. In addition, the potato harvest of some 500,000 tons is close to sufficient to cover annual consumption in Finland. In contrast, the level of oilseed crop production was significantly insufficient to cover full-year consumption. 

The rye harvest corresponds to annual consumption once again

The rye harvest of some 90,000 tons is sufficient to meet annual consumption in Finland. The volumes of other cereals were also sufficiently high. Even though the barley harvest of more than a million tons was almost a third smaller than the ten-year average, it is expected to cover the annual volume required for beer production, livestock feeding and other small-scale consumption.

“The oat harvest was almost as large as the barley harvest at roughly a billion kilos. The use of oats in the domestic food industry has increased in recent years, accounting for some 150,000 tons, or 15 per cent, of the total harvest. Almost 300,000 tons of Finnish oats are expected to be exported,” says Anneli Partala, Senior Statistician at Luke.

We are living in the golden age of pea production – surpassed turnip rape and rapeseed

Food and feed pea production was almost at the previous year’s level at 90,000 tons. The increased use of feed pea in farm livestock feeding has accelerated its production. As pea can partly replace soy, it reduces our dependence on soy imports.

Pea has rapidly become a key crop. The pea area surpassed the turnip rape and rapeseed area in 2023, already exceeding the rye area four years ago. 

“In contrast, caraway is a truly international crop, as practically the total production volume is exported.  Last year’s caraway harvest was roughly five thousand tons,” Partala says.

Grass crops are important sources of feed in Finland

The grass crop harvest is often forgotten when talking about crop production, even though the grass crop area is larger than that of any other single crop. The reason for this is that the harvest is almost exclusively consumed on farms, whereas only a small part ends up on the market. In addition, it is difficult to estimate the grass crop volume because such an estimate is often based on calculating the number of bales or evaluating the volumes of feed silos. On quantitative terms, Finland’s silage fodder harvest was massive at more than eight billion kilos, harvested from a total area of almost 470,000 hectares.

Organic rye accounted for an eighth of the total rye harvest

According to a rough estimate, organic production accounts for a tenth of total crop production. The proportion of the organic area is slightly larger than this. The organic harvest in kilos per field area was smaller than regular production for practically all crops. Last year, organic cereal production accounted for an average of 70 per cent of the volume harvested from fields used in regular production.

The organic rye harvest amounted to roughly 11,000 tons, corresponding to 12 per cent of total rye production. In addition, organic production accounts for a relatively significant part of the oat harvest. The organic oat harvest of roughly 86,000 tons covers almost nine per cent of the total oat harvest. In contrast, the volume of organic barley and wheat production was relatively low, making up only one to two per cent of the total harvest.

Crop production statistics are part of the Official Statistics of Finland 

Crop production has been recorded annually in Finland for more than a hundred years. According to section 2 of the act on food and natural resources statistics (27 June 2014/562), Luke compiles and publishes crop production statistics. As information for the crop production statistics is collected from farms, the statistics are part of the Official Statistics of Finland (OSF). The OSF status guarantees that the statistics are available to everyone at the same time and the schedule of the statistics is announced beforehand. 

Information for the most recent crop production statistics was obtained in October and November from roughly 5,200 farms, of which 650 were organic farms. The homepage of the statistics presents more detailed information about the production of all key crops, and the statistics database includes harvest information for the whole country from the 1920s and by the regions of the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY) from 1999–2022. From 2023, regional information will be published by the regions of Finland. Information about organic production is available from 2006.