Farm office FranceAgriMer cut its estimate for this year's French grain maize harvest on Thursday to the lowest level since 1990 due to weather-hit yields and as it saw more of the crop being diverted for use as on-farm fodder maize. In monthly supply-and-demand forecasts for cereals, FranceAgriMer lowered 2016 grain maize production to 11.8 million tonnes, 9.6 percent below last year's output and down from last month's forecast of 12.2 million tonnes.
In another sign of the impact of summer drought and heat, the office trimmed the average maize yield, citing disappointing results for irrigated maize, and warned it could cut its production estimate next month. The production downgrade also reflected a lower area estimate because FranceAgriMer assumed some growers had harvested more maize than anticipated as farm fodder, rather than as grain maize for sale on the market.
The current maize harvest is capping a troubled year for French cereal farmers, after poor spring weather affected barley and wheat crops and led to the worst soft wheat harvest in about 30 years. The poor harvest has led to unusually early maize imports into France, with a second shipment of Bulgarian maize due to arrive this week. FranceAgriMer said it was now using the farm ministry's production data like for other crops. But in grain maize it was excluding so-called corn cob mix, a non-dried maize for on-farm use, which explained the difference with the ministry's current estimate of 12.3 million tonnes.
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