Statistics & Usage

Rye (Secale cereale) is a special cereal grown almost exclusively in the north-western part of the Eastern Hemisphere. Nearly 95% of the global production takes place in the northern part of the area between the Ural Mountains and the Nordic Sea. The greatest rye producer used to be the former Soviet Union. Now this has been split in two main parts: the Russian Federation 3-4 million tonnes and Belarus about 1-2 million tonnes. Poland, which produces about 3 million tonnes, and Germany, with 2 million tonnes in year 2003, were the largest producers.

Nordic and Baltic countries produced 547 000 tons of rye in 2006 and European Union (EU ) 6 771 000 tons. This is 8,1 % of the rye production in EU . Of the Nordic and Baltic countries Denmark, Latvia, Sweden and Lithuania have the highest rye production, more than 80 000 tons/year and Estonia and Norway the lowest 18 000 tonnes and 26 000 tonnes, respectively.

Although the total production of rye has diminished, its use as food for humans has increased slightly during the 1990s. In 2003, the food consumption of rye in the world was about 6 million metric tonnes, which is about 42% of total production.

Cereal consumption in EU 2006.

In 2006, EU used 7 million tonnes rye and 41,9 % was used as food. The rest was used as feed. Very little barley is used as food only 0,6 % of total barley usage.

Annual cereal consumption as food (kg/head) in EU 2003 - 2006.

In EU human consumption of rye is 6,1 kg/head which is 7,6 times higher than barley, 2,1 times higher than oat, but 15,2 times lower that wheat. Generally, during the last few decades, rye consumption has decreased in countries, where its consumption has traditionally been high, and has increased in countries, where the consumption has been low.

Annual Rye Consumption as Food in the World and in some individual countries

Of the Nordic and Baltic countries Norway have the lowest consumption of rye 7,2 kg/capita and Estonia the highest 29,0 kg/capita. All Nordic and Baltic countries have higher rye consumption than EU average, 6,1 kg/capita.