Growth of cereal exports levelling off – use of oats in food production growing

Reduced cereal exports and the larger-than-2024 harvest bolstered the cereal stocks at the end of the 2025 harvest year. The data are based on Natural Resources Institute Finland’s cereals balance sheet and statistics on the use of harvests on farms.

Cereal exports amounted to 450 million kilograms, i.e. 13 per cent of the entire cereal harvest. Oats remain the most significant cereal export, 347 million kilograms of which was exported. As domestic demand is stable, the 120 million kilogram decline in export volume is explained by the decline from previous year’s harvest.

Despite the overall decline in cereal export volume, a strong wheat harvest boosted its exports by 65 per cent, exceeding 100 million kilograms.

Cereal imports have remained minor. In the previous harvest year, the cereal import volume was 30 million kilograms in total. Wheat imports grew slightly from last year to 12 million kilograms.

“Wheat imports and exports closely tracked the changes in the global cereal trade, in which the wheat trade rose to record figures,” according to Johannes Nykänen, Senior Statistician at the Natural Resources Institute Finland.

Food production uses approximately 500 million kilograms of cereals, which is about 16 per cent of the domestic production volume. This volume has been growing steadily with growing domestic demand. In the previous harvest year, the use of oats for food production rose to 200 million kilograms. Concurrently, the use of wheat and rye saw a slight decline. However, the volume of wheat used remains at 220 million kilograms, which means it accounts for nearly one half of food cereals.

A majority of domestic cereal production is used as feed, with 48 per cent of the harvest going to production animal feed in Finland. Barley accounts for one half of the 1.6 billion kilograms of feed cereals. The remaining half is a roughly equal split between oats and wheat.

“Feed use has remained largely unchanged, while use of domestic wheat in food production has been seeing moderate growth,” according to Nykänen.

Barley retained its position as the most important industrial cereal, with over 90 per cent of the industrial use of cereals in Finland. Industrial use includes malting, among other things.

Luke’s Statistical Services monitor the production, use, consumption and stocks of domestic cereals on an annual basis. The most recent statistics are for the harvest year from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. The statistics are available at luke.fi/en. In addition, the Finnish Cereal Committee monitors the status of the current harvest year (1 July 2026 – 30 June 2027) on a quarterly basis.

On 25 September, Luke will publish harvest estimate statistics, which represent the harvest outlook for Finnish fields as of 21 September 2026.