estonian agriculture, rural economy and food industry

1.
Climate
• Estonia’s climate is influenced by its close
proximity to the Baltic Sea and the intensive
cyclonical processes of the Atlantic Ocean.
Moderately cold winters, cool springs,
moderately warm and variably dry-to-rainy
summers and long autumns are typical.
• The annual average temperature is +5 °C.
July is the warmest month with an average
temperature of +16 °C to +17.5 °C, while
February is the coldest with an average temperature
of –3.5 °C in the western parts of
Estonia and its islands and –7.5 °C in the
eastern part of Estonia.
• There are 1600–1870 sunny hours a year;
the annual radiation balance for the territory
encompassing Estonia is 3500 MJ/m.
• The vegetation period (daily average temperature
above +5 °C) lasts from the
beginning of May until the end of
September, the duration of which is approximately
175 days.
• The annual average rainfall is 550–720 mm.
Rainfall exceeds humidity loss due to
evaporation.
• The average relative humidity in Estonia is
80%.
Mineral resources
• The most important mineral resources of
Estonia are oil shale, phosphorite, and peat.
• Estonian oil shale is regarded as being of the
world’s finest quality. Estonia’s oil shale
resource coverage areas are in the northeast
of the country, totaling approximately
6,000 km 2 . The largest single Estonian deposit
contains nearly 8 billion tonnes of oil
shale. Oil shale is primarily used as a fuel for
power stations (80%) and as raw material
for the oil shale chemical industry (20%).
• Phosphorite resources, which are located in
Under
water
6%
Land use 01.01.2001
Other land 17%
Forest land 45%
Arable
land 25%
Natural
grassland 7%
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