Production of the three main cereals grown in Ireland - wheat, barley, and oats - jumped by 299,000 tonnes last year to 2.311 million tonnes.

New figures released today (Friday, May 1) by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show the nearly 15% year on year jump in cereal production in 2025.

According to  Stephanie Kelleher, statistician in Agriculture Surveys, said the overall increase was mainly driven by a rise in the production of winter cereals.

Kelleher said winter wheat was up 268,900 tonnes (+74.7%), winter oats by 98,500 tonnes (+152.4%), and winter barley by 173,900 tonnes (+49.5%).

"Spring wheat decreased by 18,600 tonnes (-34.7%), spring oats by 52,200 tonnes (-30.5%), and spring barley by 171,500 (-17.0%)," the statistician added.

Cereals yield

According to the CSO yield rose in all three winter cereals last year compared with 2024.

Winter wheat had the largest increase in yield at 1.7 tonnes per hectare (+18.9%), winter barley at 1.0 tonnes per hectare (+12.9%), and winter oats at 0.4 tonnes per hectare (+5.0%).

However in contrast beans and peas production last year dropped by 18,600 tonnes (-19.3%) to 77,600 tonnes in comparison with 2024 due to less area planted (-4,200 ha).

Oilseed rape production was also down by 7,300 tonnes (-11.0%) to 59,500 tonnes in 2025 - even with the higher yield of 5.0 tonnes per hectare compared with 4.1 tonnes per hectare in the previous year.

Potatoes

According to the CSO potato production went up last year by 16,600 tonnes which represented a 4.5% jump annually to 384,900 tonnes.

Statistics show that potato yield rose by 8.9% to 43.1 tonnes per hectare in 2025 compared to 39.6 tonnes per hectare in 2024 and 39.2 tonnes per hectare in 2023.

But the area of potatoes was 8,900 ha in 2025, which was 400ha - or -4.0% - less than 2024.