This year's harvest of grain crops and rape seed in Slovakia has entered its final phase, and looks to be significantly better than in 2007.
As of August 18, Slovak farmers had harvested grain crops from nearly 95 percent of the 648,000 hectares sown, according to monitoring by the Slovak Farm and Food Chamber (SPPK), the SITA newswire reported. SPPK reported that farmers have harvested 2.585 million tons of grain crops, 418,000 tons more than a year ago. Farmers have harvested 97 percent of the total rapeseed crop, with an average harvest per hectare of 2.54 tons, up by over a fifth from a year ago. The harvest of wheat has also exceeded last year's results. The average wheat harvest per hectare is 4.53 tons, 0.71 tons per hectare more than a year ago. 1,619 million tons of wheat have been stored to date, a rise of 239,000 tons.
"The remaining 4.5 percent of the wheat area is still awaiting combine-harvesters, so total production will still grow," the SPPK said. However, the average harvest per hectare will probably not rise as grains from fields severely affected by unfavourable weather remain to be harvested. The average harvest per hectare of barley is 3.9 tons, which is approximately eight percent lower than pre-harvest statistical estimates, but 24 percent higher than last year. One percent of the sown barley area remains to be harvested. According to SPPK Chairman Milan Semančík, the chamber's expectations with regard to the harvest volume of summer products are being fulfilled, despite some poor weather. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
