PARIS: Farm office FranceAgriMer said on Wednesday it estimated French soft wheat exports outside the European Union's 27 countries this season at 7.27 million tonnes, down from 13.57 million tonnes exported last season, after a sharp drop in the harvest.

FranceAgriMer this month adjusted its calculation of export and import data to consider Britain as a non-EU country, after Britain left the EU's customs union at the end of December.

Demand from China remained very strong both for soft wheat and barley, Marion Duval, deputy head of FranceAgriMer's grain unit, told reporters.

"Chinese appetite is not waning and Russia's export restrictions leave a little more room for France, knowing that we are obviously still blocked by a lack of availability on the balance sheet," she said in an online news conference.

China had imported more than 1.6 million tonnes of French soft wheat and nearly 1.6 million tonnes of barley so far this season, she said.

Russia is considering imposing a barley and corn export tax, two sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

This would be in addition to a planned wheat export tax that Russia has said it could modify this week.

The potential export changes sent EU wheat futures surging on Wednesday.

FranceAgriMer's projection of French soft wheat stocks at the end of the current 2020/21 season was unchanged from the 2.5 million tonnes estimated in December, but down from 3.0 million at the end of 2019/20.

Projected French maize stocks in 2020/21 were also unchanged, at 1.9 million tonnes, while barley stocks were cut to 1.1 million tonnes from 1.2 million seen last month.

Bird flu crises hitting duck farms in southwestern France, leading to the culling of about 700,000 birds so far, would impact demand for animal feed and maize but it was too early to provide an estimate, Duval said.

Britain's exit from the EU had not caused logistical problems so far in cereals, she added.