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Failed harvests a windfall for nation’s farmers
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August 31st, 2012
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Denmark’s bumper grain harvest arrives after farmers in the US and the Balkans were forced to abandon their crops due to prolonged droughts
A productive harvest yielding high-grade grain, combined with potentially record breaking prices, may give Danish farmers an enormous windfall this year.
According to Jyllands-Posten newspaper, the value of grain sales could increase by 4.5 billion kroner compared with 2011. This is both due to the yield, which was almost ten percent higher than last year, and high prices.
The value of Denmark’s harvest is predicted to reach 17 billion kroner, though it could be higher because farmers have yet to sell all their grain and prices may still increase.
"Big importing countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Saudi Arabia have not yet bought any wheat,” Palle Jakobsen from Agrocom, a farming information website, told Jyllands-Posten.
Prices have increased by 30 percent to about 1,900 kroner a ton since the beginning of June and could reach a record 2,400 kroner a ton.
The high prices are a result of failed harvests both in the US and in Europe, where Balkan farmers have abandoned their crops after a record heatwave and drought.
In Bosnia, where temperatures touched 47 degrees at one point during the summer, 80 percent of the crops were ruined. The country will lose about 6 billion kroner as a result, a major hit in the country where 10 percent of the GDP is related to agriculture.
Serbia is expected to lose 12 billion kroner, while the losses in Croatia amount to about 1.5 billion kroner.
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