PARIS: French farmers are expected to increase their sowings of sugar beet by 16 percent this year as they prepare for the end of EU production quotas, France's farm ministry said on Monday.
In its first estimate of 2017 sugar beet area, the ministry forecast farmers would sow 468,000 hectares of sugar beet compared with 403,000 hectares in 2016.
A sharp rise in sugar beet sowings has been anticipated after sugar processors contracted additional areas with farmers ahead of the scrapping of European Union production quotas later this year.
In cereals, the soft wheat area for this year's harvest, including a small amount of spring wheat, would reach 5.17 million hectares, virtually unchanged from 5.18 million in 2016 and nearly 3 percent above the average of the past five years, the ministry said in a crop report.
Sowings of durum wheat, the variety used in pasta, were put at 377,000 hectares, down 2.5 percent from last year.
Total barley sowings were pegged at 1.91 million hectares, little changed from last year's 1.90 million and about 8 percent above the five-year average.
This comprised an estimated 1.47 million hectares of winter barley, down marginally from last year, and 439,000 hectares of spring barley, up 4 percent.
The rapeseed area was estimated at 1.44 million hectares, including a tiny amount of spring-sown crop, down by around 7 percent from 1.55 million a year earlier.
The figure was close to the 1.43 million hectares it had estimated in February for winter rapeseed.
In its previous report, the ministry had warned of the risk of downward revisions to rapeseed area. In its latest update, however, it reiterated that dryness had hampered rapeseed sowing but did not refer to additional crop damage.
The ministry is due to issue its first maize area estimate next month. Maize sowing, which is exclusively done in spring, is under way in France and growers are expecting a fall in area.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.