Stats: This Year's Autumn Harvest Smaller Than Last Year's, Except for Potatoes

Bratislava, October 4 (TASR) - This year's harvest of autumn crops will be smaller than in 2023, with significant increases expected only in the case of potatoes, according to a third forecast by the Statistics Office. The third revised prognosis confirmed that the extremely warm and dry summer have decreased the expected yields of the majority of autumn commodities even beyond initial forecasts, especially when it comes to maize and sugar beet, with sunflowers recording a dip as well. Conversely, the potato harvest will be the best in the past two years. Maize for feeding animals, the second-most cultivated crop in Slovakia, is expected to yield 982,000 tonnes, which amounts to a year-on-year decrease of 11 percent. However, the total harvest of potatoes is forecast to go up by 35 percent (by 37,700 tonnes) y-o-y to 145,000 tonnes. Sunflower yields are likely to become even lower than expected in August, with overall production set to shrink to almost 160,000 tonnes. The sugar-beet harvest is expected to drop by 4 percent y-o-y to 1.35 million tonnes. mf/df