Dutch arable farmers faced a year of contrasts in 2024. Grain cultivation took a beating and wheat yields plummeted. Later in the season, the area of onions in particular was significantly expanded and potato cultivation remained stable. Nevertheless, extreme weather conditions posed major challenges for the entire sector, according to the final arable farming harvest estimate from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
Due to the wet spring, growers of ware potatoes were only able to plant late. This had consequences for growth and resulted in a lower yield of 43,3 tonnes per hectare. This means a decrease of 5,5% compared to 2023. Despite a slight increase in the cultivated area (+3,5%), the total gross yield amounted to 3,3 million tonnes. This is a slight decrease compared to a previous cultivation year and also 290.000 tonnes less than predicted in October with the provisional harvest estimate.
Onions keep growing
The area of seed onions also grew strongly in 2024 with an increase of +11,7%. The total yield rose partly as a result of this by 13,2% to 1,5 million tonnes. Strong growth was achieved in the Northern Netherlands in particular, with no less than a quarter more onions than the previous year. The average hectare yield remained slightly above the 46,7 level at 2023 tonnes. In the Southern Netherlands, on the other hand, cultivation suffered most from the wet and cold spring. This resulted in the lowest average hectare yield in the country.
Wheat declines, barley holds its ground
Dutch grain cultivation had a difficult year. The total gross yield fell by 38,6% to the lowest level in no less than 25 years. This was mainly due to the poor harvest of winter wheat as a result of the wet autumn in 2023. The yield of spring wheat did double. The area of spring wheat increased considerably, after grain growers were barely able to sow properly in the wet autumn. However, the doubling of yield could not compensate for the shrinkage of winter wheat.
Barley performed better and was the only cereal crop with an increase in gross yield (+3,8%). Spring barley performed particularly well, with yields increasing by half. In addition to onions, flax and hemp also showed area expansion in 2024. Fibre crop yields increased by 88,2%, largely due to growing demand for biobased materials in the automotive and textile industries.