The Dutch wheat area has recovered somewhat from the dip in the 2024 harvest. With a growth of 16,1%, the area of winter and spring wheat shot up again to more than 100.000 hectares: 112.300 hectares. Both the area of barley and sugar beets are decreasing, although that of both crops is not a big surprise.
This is evident from the figures from the Agricultural Census of Statistics Netherlands (CBS). It is also not surprising that the area of winter wheat has increased again this growing season. Due to the wet weather conditions in the autumn and winter of 2023, growers were able to sow less wheat than expected. The area of winter wheat fell by no less than a third at that time. Although many growers were still able to sow spring wheat, not enough to compensate for this 'loss'. Because the sowing of winter wheat went without any significant problems last autumn, the proportions in wheat have been restored to the usual proportions in a normal sowing season.
Spring wheat and barley yield again
The area of winter wheat will reach 2025 hectares in 100.400, an increase of more than 26% compared to 2024. The area of spring wheat has decreased by 31% to 11.900 hectares. The cultivation area of barley is also decreasing slightly, but in fact the same applies to barley as to spring wheat. Growers were less forced to sow barley, which caused the area to decrease by 9% to 35.176 hectares. This is more or less the same area as in 2023. The area of spring barley decreases by almost 19% to 20.583 hectares. The share of winter barley, on the other hand, increases by 9,5% to 14.594 hectares.
The area of the fibre crops flax and hemp has fallen slightly again this year, after a strong increase in 2024, with a decrease of 5,2% to around 6.500 hectares. This is mainly due to verzel hemp, which has fallen by 16,2% this year to 2.805 hectares. The area of flax, on the other hand, has increased by 5,8% to 3.743 hectares, reports the CBS, in response to the growing demand for linen fibre for the textile market.
Allocation reduces sugar beet area
There are fewer sugar beets in the Netherlands this year. The area is decreasing by 5,4% to 80.000 hectares, according to the Agricultural Census. This was in line with expectations, because the Cosun cooperative has reduced the so-called allocation for this year by 5 percentage points to 100%. Because the result from beet cultivation last year was also not something to write home about, thanks to a relatively low beet price, not all growers will be sad about this.
The area of chicory in the Netherlands has increased relatively strongly this year: by 21% to 3.766 hectares.