EU Commission forecasts decline in EU soybean area for the 2023 harvest

The legume area for this year’s harvest is projected to see a slight decline - due to a smaller soybean growing area.
The production area of feed peas and field beans are aslo expected to be expanded.
According to an initial forecast from the EU Commission, the area dedicated to legume production in the EU-27 for the harvest is set to decline 1% to just less than 2.5 million hectares.
Nevertheless, this would still be the third largest legume area in the past 10 years. Soybeans have accounted for the largest share since 2018.
At an estimated 1 million hectares, the soybean area will probably drop just less than 9% on the previous year, but still remain in the six-digit hectare range.
The EU Commission sees this year’s feed pea production up 6% compared to the previous season at 816,000 hectares.
Field beans are expected to be sown on a 6% larger area of around 464,000 hectares. By contrast, the sweet lupin area is estimated to shrink 4% to 205,000 hectares.
As regards feed peas and field beans, the 2023 harvests could also increase, depending on weather conditions. Based on average yields, the feed pea harvest could increase 14% year-on-year to 2.1 million tonnes.
Whereas the harvest potential for field beans is seen to increase 8% to 1.3 million tonnes, the EU Commission estimates the sweet lupin harvest at 273,000 tonnes, just under 5% less. By contrast, according to investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft, the decline in soybean area will probably be more than offset by expected higher yields. More specifically, the 2023 harvest could hit a record at 2.8 million tonnes, which would be rise of just less than 16 per cent on 2022.