Germany’s grain harvest will fall after suffering from unfavourable weather swinging from drought to rain which fell on crops just before they were gathered, the agriculture ministry estimated on Monday.

But overall harvest volumes were satisfactory, the ministry said.

Germany’s total 2023 grains crop including grain maize (corn) is forecast to fall 2.9% on the year to some 42.23 million metric tons, it said its harvest report.

Germany's 2023 winter wheat crop is expected to fall 6.0% on the year to around 20.77 million tons, the ministry estimated. Wheat suffered from late summer rain on ripe crops, which damaged quality.

The winter rapeseed crop will fall by about 3% on the year to almost 4.2 million tons, it said.

Agriculture Minister Cem Oezdemir said the climate crisis was visible in German farming, with swings in weather stressing crops and cutting yields.

A series of "freak weather patterns” caused problems for farmers, he said. But overall the grains harvest was “satisfactory” despite challenging weather.

The grains crop was down 1.4% on the 2017-2022 average and the wheat crop down 5.2% on this period.

An unusually mild winter leaving crops vulnerable to late frosts was followed by early spring rain and afterwards drought and then repeated rain which fell on crops before the harvest.

Winter wheat protein content, an important quality criteria, will fall to 11.7% on average from 11.9% last year.

Such weather swings showed that climate change is a reality hitting farming and agriculture must play its part in efforts to counter climate change, said Oezdemir, a member of the Green party.

Germany is the European Union’s second largest wheat producer after France and many years the EU’s largest producer of rapeseed, Europe’s main oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production.

Grains harvesting is now almost complete after delays caused by the rain. (Reporting by Michael Hogan; editing by Jason Neely)