The yield of late crops, foremost maize and potato, will significantly exceed Slovenia’s ten-year average this year, the Statistics Office (SURS) said on the basis of the state of crops at the start of September.
Summer without major heat waves and with enough rainfall had a favourable effect on maize, which was sown on almost 68,000 hectares of arable land.
Maize on almost 40,000 hectares will be harvested for grains, with the expected average yield at over 10 tonnes per hectare, up 12% higher from 2019 and 25% above the ten-year average.
Silage maize is also expected to yield abundantly: the expected average yield of green mass is over 51 tonnes per hectare, the most since SURS started monitoring yields of crops.
Total output of silage maize is expected to rise by 5% compared to 2019 to over 1,400,000 tonnes of green mass, although it was sown on a smaller area.
Late potato was sown on over 2,400 hectares of land, up 4% over 2019, with the expected average yield of nearly 31 tonnes per hectare to be by 21% higher than the ten-year average.
An abundant yield is also expected for sugar beet – an average 60.6 tonnes per hectare. However, total output is to be smaller than in 2019 since it was sown on an area smaller by almost 40%.
Hop producers are also expected to harvest more hop cones. The average yield is to be by 13% higher than in 2019 and by 20% compared to the last ten-year average.
After last year’s average fruit harvest, the harvests of apples and pears are expected to be abundant this year.
Almost 69,000 tonnes of apples and 4,800 tonnes of pears are expected to be harvested from orchard plantations.
Apples are expected to yield almost 32 tonnes per hectare, or by almost a quarter better compared to the last ten-year average.
Pears should yield excellently, with an average yield of over 21 tonnes per hectare, which is 53% larger compared to last year’s poor yield of less than 14 tonnes.
The yield per hectare for white grape varieties is expected to be higher than for red varieties.
Winegrowers should produce over 106,000 tonnes of grape on 15,300 hectares, with the expected average yield of white grape varieties at 7 tonnes per hectare, up 3% over 2019.