The UK had its smallest oilseed rape harvest for more than 40 years, according to provisional estimates by the AHDB, while the wheat crop was 21% less than last year and the five-year average.
Gabriel Odiase, analyst at AHDB, said: "The provisional figures show widely expected falls in UK wheat and oilseed rape (OSR) production.
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"While the wheat crop is still larger than 2020's historically low figure, OSR output is provisionally the lowest since 1983. Despite increases in barley and oat production from 2023, both remain below their respective five-year averages. As a result, the UK will be much more reliant on imports than usual this season."
Wheat harvest
The figures combine Defra data for England and Scottish Government calculation for Scotland combined with AHDB's estimates for Northern Ireland and Wales.
Wet weather from last autumn to spring made winter crop planting difficult which led to a 11.1 million tonne national wheat crop. That was the second smallest for 40 years after the 9.7 million tonne crop in 2020, also caused by poor planting in a wet autumn. Wheat production in the north-east of England was down nearly a third, but only 12% smaller in Scotland year-on-year.
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Growers turned to spring barley to make up for the lack of winter planting and its production was up one million tonnes to 4.8 million tonnes, but a 24% drop in winter barley production to 2.44 million tonnes meant overall barley output was up by only 300,000 tonnes or 4.3%. Oat production rose 20% to 999,000 tonnes, but that was still below the five-year average of 1.01 million tonnes.
The biggest reduction was in oilseed rape production 鈥� down 31% to 837 000 tonnes and 34% below the five-year average of 1.27 million tonnes.
