22,424t of oats (unmilled) were exported from Ireland in 2019, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This far outweighs what was imported of the product.

Unsurprisingly, this is higher than 2018, which was a low-yielding year for cereals in Ireland. In 2018, 14,712t were exported, while in 2017, 28,009t were exported.

The low yields of 2018 would also have contributed to the lower figure in 2019 compared to 2017.

The majority of the oats which were exported traveled to the Netherlands – 12,156t. 6,310t were shipped to Norway, while almost 3,000t went over the border to Northern Ireland. Small amounts also went to Great Britain and Poland.

The CSO put an estimated value of €5,520,000 on the oats exported in 2019. It’s important to remember that this figure takes in 2018 when grains in general were a much higher price than 2019.

Oat imports

The amount of oats imported into this country is relatively small and helps to explain why the price paid for oats for animal feed is generally lower than barley or wheat.

However, in 2019, this figure was higher than usual at 3,131t. In 2016, this figure was just 1,787t. The majority of imports came from Great Britain.

AgriLand must stress that this raw data was provided by the CSO and indicates trends, some figures may be subject to change.

Over the past few days AgriLand has been publishing import and export figures for 2019 and they can be found under the ‘Tillage’ tab on the website or app!