France sees grain maize area up 4.9pc this year

PARIS: France's farm ministry in its first estimate of the country's 2019 grain maize area put sowings at 1.43 million hectares (mn ha), up 4.9pc versus 2018.

In a crop report on Tuesday, the ministry kept unchanged its estimate of this year's soft wheat area at 5.0mn ha, up 2.9pc from last year.

It cut slightly its estimate of the 2019, rapeseed area to 1.31mn ha from 1.32mn seen last month, down 19.1pc on year.

For sugar beet, the ministry kept its area estimate at 455,000 ha, down 6.3pc on year.