Soaring costs prompt French farmers to reconsider sowings

PARIS: Some French farmers are planning to switch sowings from maize to sunflower, which requires less fertiliser and energy, as they face a challenging year marked by soaring costs, the head of French grain lobby Intercereales said on Wednesday.

Farmers in France, like their counterparts in other countries, are grappling with rising fuel, gas, and fertiliser prices, exacerbated by the US-Israeli war on Iran, Intercereales Director General Benoit Pietrement said, warning that the futures of some farms in the European Union’s top grain producer are at risk.

“All the great plains in the north were fairly well covered (in fertilisers), but in the south, where there are more maize growers, the coverage is much lower, and I hear that farmers are replacing maize with sunflower,” Pietrement told Reuters on the sidelines of a grain exports conference.

The full extent of the shift to sunflower plantings would become clearer in the coming weeks, with initial indications suggesting a significant area could be affected, he said. Maize sowing in France typically begins in April.

French farmers had already increased sunflower plantings at maize’s expense in 2022, amid surging fertiliser and gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to Pietrement, this year looks to be the most challenging year ever for farmers, as low prices now contrast sharply with 2022, when fears of Ukraine’s absence from the export market had sent grain prices soaring.

The tough economic climate could also lead some farmers to plant less grain next year, with an option to leave land fallow while still receiving EU farm subsidies. “Even I have doubts about the 2027 harvest, given current prices, on whether to reintroduce crop rotation and grow cereals again or increase the amount of fallow land,” said Pietrement, who also serves as chairman of a cooperative union.