West Africa Becomes a Second Hub of German Wheat
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German domestic consumption of Grains fell by almost four million tons. It amounted to around 39 million tons in the 2021/22 marketing year in Germany, according to preliminary figures from the Federal Information Center for Agriculture (BZL) and a report from the Federal Institute for Agriculture and Food. Almost 54% of the Grain is used as feed – 4.6 percentage points less than the previous year. Nearly 23% of Grain consumption in Germany was accounted for by food production (+three percentage points), while around 18% (one percentage point less) went into industrial and energy use. Seeds and losses together amounted to almost 6%.
In the 2021/22 marketing year, 20.9 million tons of Grain were used in Germany, and thus, around 16% less for animal feed. Of these, around 6.6 million tons fell on Wheat and 5.1 million tons on Barley and Corn. The decline in the use of Grains for feed is due, among other things, to the reduced production of compound feed in 2021/22. Pig feed, the most critical type of feed in quantity, has decreased due to the reduced pig herd. Another reason for the decline is the increased cost of feed components. The reduction in domestic use of Barley for feed is obvious, with a minus of 24%.
Overall, 8.9 million tons of Grain were used for food purposes, 3.4% more than the previous year. Wheat, rye, and oats continue to be the essential food cereals. Common and durum Wheat was the most crucial food Grains, with a total consumption of almost 7.4 million tons. Rye followed with 574,000 tons and oats with 499,000 tons. The per capita consumption of Grains increased again in the 2021/22 marketing year (+3.3 percent) and is now 106.6 kilograms. The information refers to the Grain value. Converted into flour value, per capita consumption corresponds to 84 kilograms of cereal flour. Statistically, every German citizen consumed 70 kilograms of Wheat flour, six kilograms of rye flour, four kilograms of oatmeal, and 3.5 kilograms of Corn flour in the last marketing year.
The war in Ukraine could explain the increase in food consumption. At the beginning of the war, consumers bought significantly more flour out of concern about supply bottlenecks. In addition, many portions of cereal in the form of finished products, such as flour or pasta, were delivered to Ukraine as food donations.
Despite a lower harvest, German agriculture was able to provide sufficient cereals and cereal products for the domestic market in the 2021/22 marketing year due to the reduced domestic use. In total, for all Grains, the harvest covered 109% of domestic demand (previous year: 101%). The degree of self-sufficiency of common Wheat was 126%; Barley was 133%. 17% of domestic consumption of durum Wheat could be covered by domestic agriculture; in the previous year, only 15%.
German Wheat Trade
Germany is a significant wheat exporter. According to the AgFlow data, Iran led their Wheat export market with 1.1 million tons in 2022, followed by Guinea (0.24 million tons), Nigeria (0.2 million tons), Algeria (0.15 million tons), and Mauritania (0.15 million tons). Export volume totaled 63,752 tons last month and 2.5 million tons last year.
In terms of Corn, Germany imported 248,000 tons last year, mainly from Ukraine, the United States, and Poland. For soybean, the country’s imports hit 2.6 million tons. Exporting countries were the United States, Brazil, Hungary, and Russia. AgFlow data shows that Germany purchased 381,000 tons of Soybeans from the US last month.
Other sources: THE POULTRY SITE
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