French wheat crops off to good start as sowing ends

PARIS: Nearly all recently sown French soft wheat is in good condition as farmers wrap up sowing in the European Union's biggest wheat-exporting country, crop data showed on Friday.

Some 96pc of French soft wheat crops were in good or excellent condition by Nov. 23, farm office FranceAgriMer said on Friday.

The crop rating, FranceAgriMer's first for wheat that is to be harvested next summer, compared with a 75pc score a year ago.

After heavy showers in early autumn raised concern about a repeat of last year's rain-disrupted sowing, dry and mild weather in the past month have improved field conditions, leading traders and analysts to expect an increase in the soft wheat and winter barley area.

However, with limited rain forecast again for major French grain belts in the week ahead, traders said that more moisture would be needed in December to keep crops developing well.

Winter barley conditions also remained favourable, with 94pc of crops rated good or excellent by Monday, though down slightly from 95pc the previous week.

Farmers had finished winter barley sowing, soft wheat seeding was 99pc complete and drilling of durum wheat was 85pc done, FranceAgriMer said.

Harvesting of grain maize was also complete, with the campaign showing a median harvest date that was nine days earlier than the five-year average, the office said.