The growing of Estonian cereals and arable crops is environment friendly. The Estonian farmer, according to Eurostat, uses significantly less plant protection products and fertilisers per hectare than most other European Union countries.
A large proportion of grain growers, thanks to the support from the rural development plan, comply with environmental requirements that are more stringent than the basic requirements or with organic farming rules. In 2019 the grain growing area was 364 486 ha. The year 2019 was favourable for grain cultivation and the total production of cereals amounted to 1.6 million tons.
Wheat accounted for 52%, barley for 32%, rye for 7.5% and oats for 7% of the total harvest of cereals. The yield of grain crops in Estonia may however, depending on the weather conditions, differ significantly, with the total grain yield in the very arid 2018 being only 920 900 tons. In Estonia, about 700 thousand tons of cereals are consumed for animal production, food and seed, which is why the Estonian cereals sector is very strongly oriented toward exports. The main exports are wheat, barley and oats. An important export article is organic oats.
Wheat, rye and oats are mainly exported to European Union countries, whereas for barley the major export markets are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In the year 2019 rape and turnip rape were grown on 72 351 hectares and the total yield amounted to 179 thousand tons. The surface area of leguminous vegetables (mainly peas and beans) was 42 960 hectares. The total yield of field peas was 84 thousand tons and the yield of field beans was 18 thousand tons.
Grain farming together with the grain processing industry accounted for 18% of the total production of Estonian agriculture and food industry in 2018.