Germany's National Statistics Office estimates that Germany's winter wheat plantings in 2024 are 73%, about 2.6 million hectares.
German farmers have also reduced the area planted with rapeseed in the winter of 2024 by 4., the agency said7%, to about 1.11 million hectares.
German farmers have suffered unfavorable weather for wheat planting, with repeated rainfall making the land too wet for farm vehicles to drive, the agency said.
French winter cereal plantings are also expected to be significantly reduced due to heavy rains this autumn that have disrupted field operations, the French agriculture ministry said.
The German statistics agency said that EU agricultural subsidy reform may also have made wheat production less attractive. The EU has been shifting the focus of agricultural subsidies more towards environmental protection measures.
Germany is the EU's second-largest wheat producer after France and a major wheat exporter. It is one of the largest producers of rapeseed in the European Union, Europe's most important oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production.
Rape planting is expected to be reduced due to bad weather that hampered canola planting, coupled with rainy summer that prevented an early start to planting, followed by very dry autumn weather.
The area sown by German farmers with winter barley, which is mainly used for animal feed, increased by 25% to 1.31 million hectares.
The area under cultivation of rye and other small winter cereals decreased by 44% to 600,700 hectares. The area sown to triticum rye, which is animal feed, increased by 1 percent to 333 500 hectares.