Delayed French maize crop brings harvest snags

PARIS: France's maize harvest remained well behind the usual pace last week and the late arrival of a bumper crop is creating headaches for producers faced with a jump in drying costs.

French farmers had harvested 73% of the grain maize crop area by Nov. 1, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed on Friday.

That was up from 54% a week earlier but well shy of 93% progress a year go.

This year's harvest was also showing an 11-day lag compared with the average pace of the past five years, the office said.

The growth of maize has been slowed by cool spells in spring and summer this year.

That has led to many plants maturing in early autumn when their moisture tends to remain higher, requiring additional post-harvest drying to meet storage standards, Thomas Joly, head of maize at crop institute Arvalis, said.

A surge in energy prices has pushed up the cost of drying maize by around 10% compared with last year, encouraging farmers to leave crops in the field longer to dry, he said.

There were also reports that some firms have had to suspend drying operations due to difficulties in securing gas, although Joly said such outages appeared to be limited.

French grain firms were also facing logistical snags as bumper yields in this year's maize crop were leading to a late glut of harvest deliveries. "Grain handlers are being inundated with maize and facing drying problems," a French trader said.

While cool weather slowed the crop cycle, regular rain has boosted yield prospects for French maize. The French farm ministry last month raised its harvest forecast and Joly said Arvalis, which will issue a crop estimate next week, sees potential for record yields.

Wet weather earlier this week could slow harvest progress before a dry spell forecast for the week ahead. Winter cereal sowing remained close to the average pace of recent years, FranceAgriMer's data showed.

For soft wheat, France's main cereal crop, 80% of the expected area had been drilled by Nov. 1. Winter barley sowing was 90% complete while durum wheat sowing was 26% complete.