France cuts wheat crop estimate to 29.7mn tonnes, down 25pc from last year

PARIS: France's farm ministry on Wednesday lowered its estimate of this year's soft wheat harvest to 29.71 million tonnes from an initial forecast of 31.31 million last month.

That was 24.9pc below last year's bumper harvest and also 15.9pc lower than the average of the past five years, the ministry said in a crop report, reiterating that heavy autumn rain and spring drought severely affected wheat crops.

The reduced soft wheat production estimate reflected cuts to both the expected harvested area and the average yield.

The area was seen at 4.35 million hectares against 4.41 million last month and the yield was pegged at 6.83 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) against 7.1 t/ha last month.

The ministry also reduced its estimate for this year's barley crop, to 11.3 million tonnes from 12.3 million forecast in July.

In a first projection for this year's grain maize harvest, the ministry forecast production would reach 14.4 million tonnes, up 10.8pc from last year and 1pc above the five-year norm, as both area and yield were projected to rise.

Excluding seeds, grain maize production was pegged at 14.13 million.

For rapeseed, which, like wheat and barley, suffered from adverse weather, the ministry trimmed its production estimate to 3.33 million tonnes from 3.37 million last month.

That was down 4.8pc from last year and 35.7pc below the five-year mean, it said.