Soybean production in Germany: larger area, lower yields

According to data from the German Federal Statistical Office, the 2026 German soybean harvest is expected to exceed the previous year’s output, reaching a new record high despite significantly lower yields per hectare.

The increase in production is due to an expansion of the crop area.

According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), soybean farming did not play a major role in Germany until 2015 but has since steadily gained importance.

In 2026, the soybean area increased significantly compared with the previous year, rising nearly 21 percent to 52,300 hectares.

Preliminary data from the German Federal Statistical Office show a soybean harvest of 133,800 metric tons, an increase of just over 3,000 tons over 2025.

The rise in production is based on an expansion of the crop area.

At a projected 2.56 tons per hectare, average yields are significantly below the previous year’s level of 3.02 tons per hectare.

Like other crops, soybeans suffered from this summer’s dry spells.

Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg continue to be Germany’s leading production regions.

Whereas output in Bavaria increased 2 percent to 76,400 tons, the harvest in Baden-Wuerttemberg is expected to remain approximately 23 percent below the previous year’s level, reaching 18,000 tons.

In both German states, the soybean area increased compared with the previous year, meaning that the declines are exclusively due to the expected significantly lower yields.

Signs of considerable drops in yields are also seen in Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg.

In contrast, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Thuringia and Lower Saxony reported increases in harvest volumes.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e. V. (UFOP) said it views the expansion in soybean area as an encouraging development and a sign of growing interest among farmers in integrating soybeans and grain legumes in general into their crop rotations—contributing to more resilience, biodiversity, climate-change mitigation and security of supply for vegetable protein.

The association has stressed that the protein market has an enormous potential, especially because its GMO-free status gives it a key competitive edge over imported products in the food market.

“It is now important to capitalize on this momentum and incorporate it into a sustained and balanced national protein plan,” the organization stated. “UFOP expects the German Minister of Agriculture Alois Rainer not to cut funding in the federal budget, but rather to maintain it at its current level so that the networks that have been built up over the years—ranging from cultivation-consultancy services and marketing to product development—will not unravel. According to UFOP, this would demonstrate a genuine political commitment to resilience. Failing this, Germany’s pioneering role within the EU would be called into question. The federal states, too, are called upon to meet the demand for greater resilience. UFOP has criticized the fact that financial support for cultivation is limited to individual federal states, adding that such patchwork approach to funding should urgently be stopped.”