Which of Sweden's 25 provinces ('landskap') is this year’s winner when it comes to farming? The answer is the island of Öland. Öland sticks out in what otherwise looks like a pretty average harvest season in Sweden. ”Öland is like Ireland this year, it’s a green island,” says Erik Andersson from Lantmännen (an agricultural cooperative).
The grain harvest in the rest of Sweden this year will on average be like it has been the past five years, according to Jordbruksverket (the Swedish Board of Agriculture). That means a small loss compared to last year, in spite of the good weather. One reason may be last year’s heavy rain, which occured when many of this year’s crops were sown. But this does not apply to Öland. On the island of the sun and the winds, all crops have grown like never before all summer.

”We’ve had a very favorable season,” Andersson says. Last year, the grain harvest on Öland was record, but other crops did not fare as well. What sets the summer of 2013 apart is that also vegetables, corn, and fodder grass for the animals have grown well. ”And that hasn’t happen in a very, very long time,” Andersson says. The weather has been ideal: When it’s rained, it’s been in large quantities, and during shorter periods, and it has quickly gotten sunny again, and it’s been consistently warm. The result? Tourists as well as farmers are happy, and Öland has looked green all summer long, when usually in summertime the island is somewhat yellowish and burnt. The only thing suffering is the brown bean, a legume that is special to Öland, and it would have been happier with a little drier conditions.

Öland – paradise not only for tourists but this year also for farmers.

Read more on the non-island island Öland is no island! (The second-largest island in Sweden is not an island)