Agri-services group, Origin Enterprises, is forecasting a strong recovery in winter wheat plantings in Ireland and the UK ahead of the 2021 growing season. Announcing a first-quarter trading update on Wednesday, Origin said it expected winter wheat plantings in the UK to be 73% higher this year at 1.8m ha (4.5m acres).

This time last year, the extremely difficult weather conditions from late September right through to the end of the year resulted in a sharp decline in winter crop plantings across the UK and Ireland. This led to increased planting levels for spring crops but farmers were also forced to leave over 1m acres fallow last year.

Origin said it anticipates spring plantings to return to more normalised levels for 2021

Origin said it now expects a sharp recovery in winter plantings this year and is forecasting the area planted in winter crops in Ireland and the UK to be up by more than 50% year on year at 2.5m ha (6.2m acres).

Overall, Origin said it anticipates spring plantings to return to more normalised levels for 2021 and said that it expects total plantings of winter and spring crops in the UK and Ireland for 2021 will be more than 10% higher at a combined 4.4m ha (11m acres).

Europe

In its continental Europe markets, Origin said it anticipates a slight decline in winter plantings for 2021. The company said winter crop plantings will be down 1.5% in Poland, 3% in Romania and over 6% in Ukraine, which is one of the largest wheat-producing regions of Europe.

Origin said its Brazilian business recorded underlying sales growth of 25% for the first quarter of the year

Origin said it expects this drop in winter plantings to transfer to spring crops and the total area planted in crops in all countries will be in line with last year.

Origin said its Brazilian business recorded underlying sales growth of 25% for the first quarter of the year. Origin said it expects Brazilian soya bean plantings for the 2021 season to increase by almost 4% to over 38m ha (94m acres).

Quiet

In all, Origin reported an 11% decline in underlying sales to reach just over €318m for its seasonally quiet first quarter of the year.

However, it should be noted the company typically earns over 90% of its profits in the second half of its financial year when tillage farmers are at their busiest working in fields.

Origin said it expects the recovery in winter crop plantings in the UK and Ireland, which are by far its most important markets, to drive higher operating profits for the company in 2021.