PARIS: France’s farm ministry on Tuesday increased its forecast for this year’s maize harvest, with summer rain expected to help yields recover from drought-hit levels last year, though it revised down its estimate for the country’s soft wheat crop.
For grain maize, the ministry anticipated output, excluding crop grown for seeds, at 11.22 million metric tons, up from 10.89 million projected in August and now 5.3% higher than the 2022 volume.
“The rains in late July and early August favoured yield potential, notably for non-irrigated maize,” the ministry said in a crop report. However, grain maize production would be nearly 14% below the average of the past five years, with output capped by the smallest planted area since the 1980s, it added. Farmers have just started harvesting maize.
For soft wheat, the most produced cereal in France, estimated 2023 production was lowered to 35.14 million tons from 35.59 million projected last month, the ministry said, without giving reasons for the revision. The reduced estimate was 4.3% above last year’s volume and 2.2% higher than the five-year average.
Traders and analysts have suggested that heavy rain that delayed the end of the wheat harvest in northern France may have trimmed yields as well as reducing milling quality. In oilseeds, the ministry increased its forecast for the sunflower seed crop to a record 2.08 million metric tons, up 16.6% from 2022, with strong yields also supported by summer rainfall, it said.
For rapeseed, France’s main oilseed crop, estimated production was trimmed to 4.30 million tons from 4.34 million last month. That left output down 5.2% from 2022 but 9.4% above the five-year average.
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