Cultivation

Despite the fact that the first systematic breeding of triticale merely began in the 1960s, production has grown from less than 4 million tons in the late 1980s to more than 17 million tons in 2014.

Especially during the last decade, triticale has gained considerable importance as its production area has expanded from 2.5 Mha in 2000 up to 4.1 Mha in 2014. Current production of triticale is concentrated in Europe with more than 80 % of the world production. The top three leading producers of triticale worldwide are Poland (1,306,025 ha), Germany (418,200 ha) and France (387,604 ha). Judging from the more than 4 Mha of triticale grown today, one could easily argue that the descendants of the hybrids between wheat and rye have delivered on their promise to provide humankind with another valuable cereal crop (FAOSTAT, 2017).