French wheat crop ratings stable, spring barley score improves

PARIS: Farm office FranceAgriMer estimated in a weekly report on Friday that 79pc of French soft wheat crops were in good or excellent condition by May 6, unchanged from a week earlier.

That compared with 78pc at the same stage last year.

FranceAgriMer rated 75pc of French winter barley as good/excellent, also unchanged from a week earlier, while the equivalent spring barley rating rose to 88pc from 86pc.

For grain maize, 80pc of the expected area for this year's harvest had been sown, up from 68pc a week earlier.