Combine harvesters are ready for the start of the wheat harvest season on 145,000 hectares of land in eastern Croatia, and despite the lack of rain in recent weeks, local farmers expect a decent yield, representatives of the farmers told a news conference on Monday.

The Agriculture Ministry’s state secretary Tugomir Majdak told the news conference in Osijek that this year’s wheat harvest was estimated at a million tonnes.

He went on to say that the harvest of barley was already over on 90% of the area sown with this cereal in eastern Croatia and that the barley harvest was nearing completion in central Croatia, with an average yield of between 4.5 and 7 tonnes per hectare.

The oilseed rape harvest has already kicked off in some counties, with the yield ranging between 1.8 and 3 tonnes per hectare.

Majdak pledged assistance in EU funds to increase the storage capacity for cereals.

Mato Brlosic of the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture said that high temperatures and the lack of rainfall in recent weeks were particularly detrimental to maize yields this year.