Share of oats in cereal exports continues to grow

There is a clear division into different uses of cereals in Finland: Wheat dominates food production, barley goes into feed, and oats are exported. The data are based on Natural Resources Institute Finland’s cereals balance sheet and statistics on the use of harvests on farms.

Conservative changes in domestic consumption

Over 80% of the annual domestic production of cereals is used in Finland. There has been a slight decline in domestic use in recent years, mainly due to a decrease in feed use. In the previous harvest year, about 2.6 billion kilograms of cereals were used in Finland.

“There has been a moderate decrease in feed use, while the share of food production has risen to 19 per cent,” says Senior Statistician Johannes Nykänen from Natural Resources Institute Finland.

Majority of cereals used as feed

Although there has been a slow decline in feed use of cereals in recent years, 49 per cent of the harvest is still used as feed for farm animals in Finland. Half of the 1.5 billion kilograms of cereals used as feed is barley, with the rest being equally split between oats and wheat.

Food production uses approximately 500 million kilograms of cereals each year, which is about 16 per cent of the domestic production volume. The volume has remained constant – it is the proportion of cereals that has changed.

Demand for oats in domestic food production continues to grow and reached 180 million kilograms in the previous harvest year. At he same time, there has been a moderate decrease in the use of wheat and rye, with the annual volume of wheat remaining at some 220 million kilograms.

The industrial use of grain has also been declining: last year, the industry consumed 281 million kilograms of cereals, more than 90% of which was barley.

Oat exports continue to grow

Oats are the clear winner in the foreign exports of cereals. In the previous harvest year, 17 per cent of the harvest, i.e. about 540 million kilograms, was sold abroad. While the total export volume varies annually, oats reached record highs for the second year running, at almost 470 million kilograms.

Total cereal imports fell for the third year in a row, with a volume of only 19 million kilograms in the previous harvest year, which indicates that domestic production is sufficient.

Background to the statistics

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 2024 to 30 June 2025. The statistics are available at luke.fi/en. In addition, the Finnish Cereal Committee monitors the status of the current harvest year (1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026) on a quarterly basis.

On 26 September, Luke will publish harvest estimate statistics, which represent the harvest outlook for Finnish fields as of 22 September 2025.