Wheat area in Britain down 19 percent - HGCA survey

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's wheat harvest area is expected to be down 19 percent this year at 1.61 million hectares, the Home-Grown Cereals Authority said on Monday, issuing results of a planting survey.

The planting of wheat crops last autumn was wrecked by wet weather and many farmers were forced to turn to spring crops, particularly spring barley.

"Although the fall in wheat harvest area is extreme, this is unlikely to come as a huge shock to the industry or the market which has been preparing for such a scenario for some time," HGCA senior analyst Jack Watts said.

Britain is on course to harvest its smallest wheat crop in more than a decade this year.

The HGCA said the spring barley area rose 54 percent to 922,000 hectares while winter barley dipped 18 percent to 311,000 hectares. The overall barley area showed a 26 percent increase to 1.23 million hectares.

The survey also showed the rapeseed harvest area in Britain is expected to be down 9 percent at 686,000 hectares, driven by a 19 percent fall in winter rapeseed which was partially offset by additional area for spring rapeseed.

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt; editing by James Jukwey and David Evans)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wheat-area-britain-down-19-percent-hgca-survey-113529694.html

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