What Crops Are Grown in the UK? Areas, Tonnes and Value

The main crops grown in the UK are wheat, barley, oats, oilseed rape, potatoes, sugar beet, field beans, peas, maize and vegetables. Wheat is the largest, with 1.67 million hectares and just under 12 million tonnes in 2025, according to Defra’s Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025. Below you will find the full crop table, where each crop grows, how far UK harvests cover UK demand, and a calculator for testing a crop’s margin.

What crops are grown in the UK: the full table

This table lists the main crops in Defra’s 2025 crops chapter, which gives no maize figure. Potatoes show the area harvested, as Defra’s production figure relates to that area. The area sown was larger, at 127,000 hectares. Fruit is added at the end because it earns far more per hectare than its small area suggests.

Area and tonnes tell different stories. Sugar beet covers less land than oats but gives more than seven times the tonnage, because a root crop is heavy and holds a lot of water. Vegetables use about one sixteenth of the wheat area and come close to wheat in value.

Chart

UK crop area by crop

Thousand hectares, 2025. Potatoes are area harvested.

The main crops grown in the UK, one by one

Wheat

Wheat is the largest UK crop by area and by value. The 2025 harvest rose 7.3% on 2024 because the area grew 9.1%, while the average yield slipped to 7.2 tonnes per hectare, Defra’s final cereal estimate shows. Animal feed took about 6.9 million tonnes of the wheat used in the UK in 2025, and flour milling, starch and bioethanol took about 5.5 million tonnes. The UK has been a net wheat importer every year from 2017 to 2025.

Barley

Barley is second. It splits into winter barley (363,000 hectares in 2025) and spring barley (717,000 hectares). Brewers, maltsters and distillers used about 1.7 million tonnes in 2025, and animal feed used about 4.5 million tonnes. The UK also exported 693,000 tonnes, with 41% going to the Republic of Ireland. Spring barley suffered in the 2025 drought, and many crops in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England missed malting quality.

Oats

Oats covered 198,000 hectares in 2025. Mills processed 510,000 tonnes, and Defra links part of the longer rise in demand to plant-based drinks. Minor cereals such as rye and triticale are grown too. After wheat, barley and oats, Defra’s cereal total leaves about 65,000 hectares for them.

Oilseed rape

Oilseed rape gives the yellow fields many people notice in spring. Its 2025 UK area of 241,000 hectares was the lowest this century. A better yield of 3.7 tonnes per hectare lifted the harvest to 893,000 tonnes. The crop may be recovering: the area in England alone rose 35.5% to 276,000 hectares in June 2026, according to Defra’s June 2026 land use survey.

Potatoes

Growers sowed 127,000 hectares of potatoes in 2025 and lifted 5.5 million tonnes. Around 4.5 million tonnes went for human consumption and 561,000 tonnes for seed. Water made a big difference to results. Defra reports irrigated crops above 80 tonnes per hectare in some varieties, and unirrigated crops as low as 30. Scotland planted 30,400 hectares, its largest area since 2011, says the Scottish agricultural census. England’s area fell 8.2% to 82,000 hectares in June 2026.

Sugar beet

About 2,000 growers in the East of England, the East Midlands and Yorkshire supply British Sugar. The company runs four factories that process the crop. The 2025 harvest was 7.3 million tonnes from 94,000 hectares, and its value fell 22% to £286 million, as both output and prices dropped.

Field beans, peas and maize

Beans and peas add nitrogen-fixing crops to a cereal rotation. In England, field beans fell 13.2% to 119,000 hectares in June 2026. Maize is larger than many people expect. England alone had 272,000 hectares in 2026, up 12.9%. Defra’s England survey counts it among other arable crops, and Defra’s UK crops chapter has no separate maize table, so it is not in the UK table above.

Vegetables and fruit

Vegetables reached a record £2.1 billion in 2025. The highest-value crops Defra lists are lettuces (£276m), carrots (£242m), onions (£209m), mushrooms (£148m), tomatoes (£134m) and calabrese (£122m). Protected vegetables such as tomatoes use just 0.9 thousand hectares but bring in £431 million. The Horticulture Statistics 2025 put strawberry output at 93,000 tonnes, down 5.7%, after hot weather hurt yields. Defra reports better cropping in apples, pears and cherries than in 2024.

Chart

How UK crop areas shifted

Thousand hectares, 2023 to 2025, selected crops

Where crops are grown in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

England holds most of the arable land. It had 3.3 million hectares of arable crops in June 2026, 1.5 million of them wheat, while permanent grassland took 39.5% of its farmed area. So the crops grown in England are mainly cereals, with oilseed rape, maize, potatoes and field vegetables. Defra names Lincolnshire among the eastern areas where unirrigated field vegetables struggled in the dry 2025 season. British Sugar’s growers are in the eastern regions listed above.

Scotland has about 5 million hectares of agricultural land, but only 473,700 hectares grew cereals and oilseeds in 2025. Wales and Northern Ireland publish their own June surveys: see the Welsh survey and the Northern Ireland census.

▶ How to read satellite crop data in the mobile apps. · 4:01

How much of its food does the UK grow?

The UK grew 60% of its food by farm-gate value in 2025, and 72% of foods that can be grown here, according to Defra’s Food Statistics Pocketbook. By origin, 58% of the food consumed came from the UK and 23% from the EU. These are values, not calories, and Defra stresses that 100% self-sufficiency would not by itself mean food security. A mix of home production and varied trade partners is seen as stronger.

Chart

UK production as a share of supply

Selected crops, percent of total new supply for use in the UK, by tonnage, 2025

Imports and exports of UK crops

Trade fills the gaps in the home harvest. Wheat imports were 2.7 million tonnes in 2025, 13% lower than in 2024, as millers could use more high-grade UK wheat. Wheat exports were just 207,000 tonnes. Oilseed rape relied on imports of 968,000 tonnes against a harvest of 893,000 tonnes. For vegetables, the UK imported about 2.1 million tonnes, mostly from the EU, and exported 66,000 tonnes.

What changed in England in the latest survey

The 2025 tables are the latest UK-wide full-year figures in this guide, and Defra marks them as provisional. England’s June 2026 survey gives an early view of the next pattern, and it shows farmers moving away from spring barley:

• Total arable crops fell 1.7% to 3.3 million hectares, and cereals made up 70.5% of them.
• Wheat fell 1.8% to 1.5 million hectares.
• Spring barley fell 16.7% to 366,000 hectares, while winter barley rose 1.6% to 307,000 hectares.
• Oilseed rape rose 35.5% to 276,000 hectares, its largest area since 2023.
• Horticultural crops rose 1.0% to 118,000 hectares.
• Uncropped arable land rose 3.9% to 566,000 hectares.

These figures cover commercial holdings in England only, so do not compare them directly with the UK table above.

What affects a UK crop’s margin

Crop prices do not all move together. Defra’s average feed wheat price fell from £186 per tonne in 2024 to £176 in 2025, and milling wheat fell from £215 to £193. Oilseed rape went the other way, up from £407 to £457. Use the calculator to test your own crop.

Chart

UK average yields, 2024 and 2025

Tonnes per hectare

Try the numbers for your own farm below.

Protecting the crop: net blotch in barley

Net blotch is a good example of a crop problem UK growers plan around. AHDB says it is found across the UK, with no difference in risk between regions, and can cause yield losses of 10–40%. The fungus, Pyrenophora teres, survives on infected stubble and volunteer barley. Good crop management strategies reduce the risk before any spray is needed:

• Choose a more resistant variety using the AHDB Recommended Lists, and keep checking it, since the fungus can overcome resistance.
• Avoid growing barley after barley, and reduce debris from infected crops.
• Control volunteers and avoid sowing early.
• Manage nitrogen so that levels in the plant do not get too high.
• Use fungicides at the main spray timings if needed. Check the product label and local rules, including the HSE pesticides guidance, and take advice from a qualified agronomist.

Regular crop scouting still matters. Satellite maps can show which part of a field is changing, but only a field visit can show the cause.

▶ How satellite indices such as NDVI and EVI are used in farming. · 10:49

Funding, carbon and farming methods

Support in England now runs through environmental land management schemes, set out on the Defra funding page. Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 had two application windows and was closed to applications when that page was last updated on 1 October 2026. Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier opened in September 2025. The Agriculture Act 2020 gives ministers the power to pay for this work. Rules differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and they change, so check the current guidance and take professional advice before making plans.

Land use is shifting too. England had 484,000 hectares of arable land used for environmental benefit in June 2026, and organic land stayed at 3% of UK farmland in 2025. For carbon income, the Woodland Carbon Code is the UK’s government-backed standard for credits from new woodland. Soil carbon sequestration on farmland is a separate topic, so read any contract closely and get legal and financial advice before you sign.

Arable farms can use precision farming techniques such as GPS guidance and variable-rate spreading. Growers who want to compare field zones through the season can do so with the Farmonaut Satellite + AI Farm Monitoring System, which maps vegetation change from satellite images.

▶ A step-by-step tutorial on monitoring crops in the web app. · 8:43

FAQ

What is the main crop grown in the UK?

Wheat, with 1.67 million hectares and just under 12 million tonnes in 2025 (Defra). Barley is second, with 1.08 million hectares.

What crops are grown in England?

Mainly wheat and barley, plus oilseed rape, maize, field beans, potatoes, sugar beet in the east, and vegetables. England had 1.5 million hectares of wheat in June 2026.

What food is grown in the UK?

Bread and feed grains, malting barley, oats, potatoes, sugar, rapeseed oil, peas, carrots, onions, lettuces, tomatoes, mushrooms, apples, pears, cherries and soft fruit such as strawberries and raspberries.

Does the UK grow enough wheat for itself?

Not in recent years. UK production equalled 83% of the new wheat supply for use in the UK in 2025, and the UK has been a net importer since 2017 (Defra).

Why does so much UK fruit come from abroad?

UK production equalled only 14% of the new fruit supply for use in the UK in 2025. Supply includes imported fruit such as bananas, which Defra notes come from the Caribbean and Central America.

Related pages on our site: UK farming technology and sustainability; water use in UK potato farming; precision farming; agricultural products; food traceability; web app; API; API developer docs.