Croatia's corn output in 2018 was 2.15 million tonnes, or more than 37 percent up year-on-year. The production of corn silage, soy, and potato also rose over the last twelve months, while the output of sugar beet recorded the largest drop, by more than 40 percent, the state statistics bureau reported on Monday.

The bureau said that the higher outputs came as a result of a higher yields per hectare in 2018.

Although corn was sown on some 235,000 hectares, or down by 12,000 than in 2017, the output was 600,000 tonnes larger than the year before. This means that corn output per hectare increased to 9.1 tonnes from 6.3 tonnes in 2017.

The output of corn silage, a type of processed corn that can be stored and used for fodder or bio-fuel, also rose by 17 percent to little over 1 million tonnes, whereas the output of soy crop jumped by more than 18 percent to 246,000 tonnes.

Total potato yield also increased by more than 20 percent, to 152,000 tonnes. Potato was cultivated on 7,000 hectares, or a thousand hectares less from 2017. However, the output per hectare was 21.1 tonnes, up from 16,5 tonnes the year before.

On the other hand, estimates say that sugar beet output dropped by more than 40 percent to a total of 771,000 tonnes in 2018. The area used for sugar beet shrank by a quarter, to 14,000 hectares, with the average yield also dropping to 54.8 tonnes per hectare from 66.3 in 2017.

The drop in sugar beet outputs and the reduction in land size used for the crop come amid a wider sugar market turmoil across Europe, caused by EU deregulation of the market in September 2017. Although the measure lifted production quotas for beet farmers, it also allowed cheaper sugar to be imported from producers outside the EU, causing a sever drop in sugar prices across the continent.

Sunflower yield dropped by more than 5 percent even though the crop was sown in 37,000 hectares, unchanged from the year before.

Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.