Sugar beet cultivation reduced, more seed potatoes grown

The cultivation of sugar beets, ware potatoes, starch potatoes, summer wheat and grain maize is reduced in 2015. The cultivation areas for seed potatoes, seed onions, winter wheat and barley have increased as the provisional results of the Agricultural Census 2015 conducted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) show.

Quota system affects sugar beet cultivation in 2015

The cultivation area for sugar beets was reduced by 22 percent to 58.5 thousand ha in 2015, i.e. a reduction by 16.6 thousand ha relative to 2014. This is partly due to the bumper harvest in 2014, when the sugar beet harvest exceeded the limits imposed by the quota system. The surplus was carried forward to 2015. Sugar beet sowing was reduced this year to comply with the quota system limits.

Potato cultivation area unchanged, more winter wheat

The total potato cultivation area is approximately the same as in 2014, but there are changes between the various potato varieties. The seed potato area has increased by 4.8 thousand ha; the cultivation areas for ware potatoes and starch potatoes were reduced by 2.4 thousand and 1.8 thousand ha respectively.

The wheat cultivation area has hardly changed either compared to last year: 142.6 thousand ha in 2015, versus 142.2 thousand ha in 2014, but there was a shift from summer wheat to winter wheat. The relation winter wheat/summer wheat partly depends on the cultivation conditions for winter wheat. If these conditions are poor, the sowing of winter wheat is reduced or new seeds are sown in spring.