In 2014, Lithuania harvested a record amount of grain, over 5 million tonnes, reports LETA/ELTA.

"Forecast last spring was rather grim, however, after the end of year we saw that we managed to grow a record amount of grain. Our specialists forecast nearly 5 million tonnes, while the number has been exceeded and is an absolute record for Lithuania," said Minister of Agriculture Virginija Baltraitiene.

In the last calendar year a total of 5,324,100 tonnes of grain were harvested. Of them, 5,123,200 tonnes were cereal grains, i.e. by 16.6% more than in 2013. Based on preliminary data, in 2014, a total of 3.24 million tonnes of grain and 0.4 million tonnes of rapeseed were bought from Lithuanian farmers for EUR 595.6 million. Compared with 2013, grain purchase increased by 9.8%, but rapeseed purchase dropped by a fifth.

In the calendar year a total of 3.1 million tonnes of grain were exported from Lithuania, mostly wheat (2.5 million tonnes or 83%), and rapeseed (0.33 million tonnes).

Compared 2014 with 2013, export of grain increased by 24.5%, while export of rapeseed dropped by 13.2%. In 2014 compared with 2013, wheat export increased by 31.6%.

Based on preliminary data of Statistics Lithuania, 764,700 hectares of winter cereals and rape were sown for 2015, by 28% more than for 2014.