Documentation of Cereals balance sheet Statistics

Data description

The Cereals Balance Sheet is a total calculation compiled in the form of a balance sheet. It illustrates the domestic production and use, changes in stocks, and imports and exports of Finland’s major cereal crops. Domestic use is subdivided into animal feed, seed use, industrial raw materials, farm energy generation and use as food.

Classification system

The statistics contain the following cereals individually and total: wheat, rye, barley and oats. Information on each cereal is given in the form of a balance sheet: 

• Available: opening stocks, import, production
• Use: use as seed, use for food (in industry, on farms), use as feed (in industry, on farms), use for energy on farms, industrial use, closing stocks, residual

Sector coverage

The statistics cover all significant cereals: wheat, rye, barley, and oats.

The statistic cover all uses of each cereal in Finland.

Statistical concepts and definitions

The harvest year begins on the 1st of July and ends on the 30th of June of the following year.

Available, total is the quantity of cereals available in Finland for various uses during the harvest year. This includes the domestic production of cereals, cereals in stock at the beginning of harvest year, and cereals imported during the harvest year. Cereals exported during the harvest year are subtracted from this.

Domestic use is a quantity of cereals, which is a sum of the use of cereals in various uses during the harvest year.

Use for energy on farms is the quantity of cereals burned for energy on farms during the harvest year.

Industrial use is the quantity of cereals processed in industries into something other than food or feed. Industrial uses of cereals include for example the production of ethanol, starch, and malts.

Residual is calculated number, which describes the balance (accuracy) of the balance sheet. The more the number deviates from 0, the more unbalanced the balance sheet is, meaning some of the numbers in the balance sheet are inaccurate. The number is calculated by subtracting Domestic use and Closing stocks from Available, total. Deficit is represented by a negative number, and surplus by a positive number.

Statistical unit

Data for the statistics is collected from various sources, the most important of which are the statistics on production of crops, statistics on use of crops on farms, and statistics on cereals purchased, used and stockpiled by industry and trade. Statistics on international trade by the Finnish Custom are also used as a data source.

Statistical population

The statistics describe the quantities of consumed cereals by uses and by grain type (wheat, rye, barley, oats). 

Unit of measure 

Information is given in millions of kilograms.

Reference period

Harvest year

Frequency of disseminations

Yearly

The statistics are compiled based on the Act on the Natural Resources Institute Finland (561/2014), the Act on Food and Natural Resource Statistics (562/2014), and the Statistics Act (280/2004).

More information: Statistics legislation

Confidentiality - policy

Confidentiality is a base principle of statistics and assures the confidential processing of data provided by informants, and the Natural Resources Institute Finland has undertaken to follow this principle. Micro-data is confidential and must never be released for administrative decision-making, investigation, surveillance, legal proceedings, or similar purposes.

Confidentiality - data treatment

The confidentiality of data collected for statistical purposes is guaranteed according to the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Personal Data Act (523/1999), the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679). Data is protected at all stages of processing using the necessary physical and technological solutions. The staff only has access to information necessary for their duties. Unauthorised people do not have access to spaces in which micro-data is processed. Staff members have signed a non-disclosure agreement when entering duty. Intentional breach of confidentiality will be penalised.

More information: Privacy policy – Statistics

The disseminations of the Natural Resources Institute Finland are published online on weekdays at 9:00.  Data is public after it has been published on the website.

Release calendar

The publication dates are confirmed in autumn together with the action plans. The release calendar of the following year is published for users in the end of the year. The release calendar holds data on the dates of future publications. The calendar also contains direct links to already published statistical publication.

Release calendar access

Statistical releases calendar | Natural Resources Institute Finland

Quality assurance

The Natural Resources Institute Finland follows the Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of European statistics when compiling statistics. The Code of Practice concern the independence and accountability of statistics authorities, and the quality of processes and published data. The principles are compatible with and supplement the Principles of Official Statistics, agreed upon by the United Nations Statistical Commission. The quality criteria of official statistics in Finland are also compatible with the Code of Practice of European statistics. The principles are also compatible with the European Foundation for Quality Management.

Quality assessment

The statistics use multiple statistics as data source. Therefore, the quality of the statistics used as data source best describes the quality of the statistics.

Overall accuracy and reliability

The data in the statistics is based on data collected from other statistics. Therefore, the reliability of the numbers in the balance sheet is reliant on the reliability of the statistics used as data sources. Data collected as census studies can be considered the most reliable. 

The reliability is also described by the Residual, which is a calculated number describing the balance (accuracy) of the balance sheet. The more the number deviates from 0, the more unbalanced the balance sheet is, meaning some of the numbers in the balance sheet are inaccurate. The number is calculated by subtracting Domestic use and Closing stocks from Available, total. Deficit is represented by a negative number, and surplus by a positive number.

The provisional balance sheet includes estimate-based data, as all the statistics used as data source have not been completed yet.

Timeliness

Provisional data is published in September, three months after the statistical period. Final data is published together with the provisional data of the following year.

Comparability - over time

Cereals balance sheet in the current form exist since the 1980s. Balance sheets exist since the 1920s, but the uses of cereals were not classified as accurately as today. Statistics since the harvest year 1995–1996 are mostly comparable. Some changes have been made since then, if there has been changed to the statistics used as data source. 

The largest change to data sources is the termination of the sample survey for farms. Since the balance sheet period 1.7.2013–30.6.2014, data collection of on-farm stock was changed to be a part of the crop production survey, and data collection of other data was changed to the current calculation methods, some of which are estimations by experts. A smaller change took place in 2005–2006 when energy use of grain on farm was first included in the statistics..

Coherence - cross domain

Balance sheets by grain type in the balance sheet for food commodities describe the same topic as these statistics. A slight difference in the contents is that the primary purpose of the balance sheet for food commodities is to measure consumption, whereas the primary purpose of the cereals balance sheet is to describe the balance of availability and use of grains (iput/output). As a result, the foreign trade figures in the balance sheet for food commodities contains grain products in addition to raw grain. The statistical periods of these statistics are also different: the balance sheet for food commodities is compiled for each calendar year, whereas the cereals balance sheet is compiled for each harvest year.

Source data

The cereals balance sheet is mostly compiled from other statistics. In addition to statistics on crop production, statistics and datasets on livestock are used for compiling the statistics. Data sources are available monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Source data is combined into a balanced aggregate. The most important data sources are:

- production and stock on farms: a sample survey for farms (crop production statistics, OSF)

- use for energy on farms: a sample survey for farms (energy consumption of agriculture and horticulture, OSF)

- use for food and feed, industrial use, and stock in trade and industry: a census for trade and industries using grain (statistic on the purchase, use and storage of cereals and protein and oilseeds OSF)

- use as seed: calculated using average seed volumes per cultivated area (use of crops on farms, OSF)

- use as feed on farms: calculated by livestock category based on the number of livestock or slaughter volumes, and based on expert estimates on feed consumption by cereal type (use of crops on farms, OSF)

- use for food on farms: estimated based on earlier sample surveys (use of crops on farms, OSF)

Data on imports and exports is collected from the Uljas-database of the Finnish Customs http://uljas.tulli.fi.

The part of grain stock not covered by these statistics is collected directly from enterprises storing grain.

Frequency of data collection

Depending on source data, data is collected monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

Data collection

Most of the data is collected in data collection of other statistics. Data is collected from published statistics, from source data used for compiling statistics, and directly from data sources.

Data validation

Data collected from statistics used as source data is compared to data from previous years. The validity and consistency of atypical observations is reviewed.

Data compilation

Data from statistics used as data sources is compiled in the form of a balance sheet.