The area of wheat harvested by East Anglian farmers has dropped by almost 5pc this year, after farmers switched to planting other crops such as barley.

Arable growers have reported average yields for the 2023 harvest after a frustrating, rain-affected summer.

But new Defra figures show the wheat area in the Eastern region - which grows 28pc of England's production of this important staple crop - fell by 4.94pc to 440,000 hectares in 2023, in line with a national decline of 5.3pc compared to 2022.

Meanwhile, the region's barley area rose by 1.9pc to 189,702ha - mainly driven by increased plantings of winter-sown varieties.

Anthony Speight, a senior analyst for the AHDB (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board) said the wheat area figure was lower than expected.

"Excluding the 2019 autumn wash-out (harvest 2020), this will be the lowest wheat area in England since 2013," he said.

"To some extent, this reduced wheat area is a little surprising. When this 2023 crop was sown towards the end of 2022, wheat prices were historically high from the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine.

"However, it seems that barley and oilseed rape were favoured over wheat."

The total area of oilseed rape increased by 6.1pc across the country, according to Defra's data.

Mr Speight said the area of the crop has reduced in recent years due to pressure from pests such as cabbage stem flea beetles, while "very attractive prices throughout 2022 led to an uptick in plantings" for harvest 2023.

Defra's survey data says all English regions saw increases in the oilseed rape area - apart from the Eastern region, which bucked that trend with a small decrease of 0.4pc.