EU Commission expects 7-year high for legumes in Europe

According to the European Commission, EU output of legumes from the 2024 crop is set to exceed the previous year’s figure by 10 percent and also surpass the average of the past five years.

Feed peas and field beans are set to see the biggest increases.

According to the figures published by the commission, the legume harvest throughout the EU will likely reach just under 6.8 million metric tons in 2024.

This would translate to a 10 percent increase on the previous year.

It would also fall just short of the 6.9-million-ton bumper harvest recorded in 2017 (EU-28).

Above all, the harvest of feed peas will presumably grow 16 percent compared to the previous year to 2.2 million tons.

According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), the rise is due to both the expansion in area planted and presumed yield increases.

At 2.9 million tons and accounting for 43 percent of the total legume crop, soybeans remain the most important legume in the EU.

Despite lower yields, output is seen to increase 5 percent year-on-year.

This would be the largest harvest on record.

The hectarage of field beans was also expanded.

The EU Commission estimates EU output at 1.3 million tons, representing around a 14 percent rise compared to the previous year.

On the other hand, the EU sweet-lupin harvest is expected to remain below the previous year’s output of 362,000 million tons, at 345,000 million tons.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e.V. (UFOP) has noted that the development of legume production confirms farmers’ fundamental interest in maintaining or even expanding the cultivation of legumes.

The association, however, has criticized that the benefits this type of crop has for biodiversity and climate-change mitigation are not properly and appropriately priced in.

“In short, for corresponding crop-rotation planning, the production of grain legumes must pay off in the long term to prevent the repeatedly expressed political call for more resilience in arable farming from coming to nothing,” UFOP stated.

The UFOP has welcomed initiatives by the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture to promote the production of grain legumes as a contribution towards enhancing the added value, adding that such action should also benefit farmers.

In view of the ongoing negotiations on the budget of the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture in the German Bundestag, the UFOP has called on those responsible to make the accompanying and incentive measures relating to the protein-crop strategy sufficiently attractive in order to support this fundamentally positive development.