PARIS: The soft wheat harvest ran slightly ahead of average by July 17 and winter barley cuttings were virtually complete, with grain crop conditions unchanged from the previous week, farm office FranceAgriMer said on Friday.

The office said in a crop report that French farmers had harvested 58% of the soft wheat crop by Monday, up from 33% a week earlier and an average of 53% but well behind last year’s fast pace of 79%.

The winter barley harvest was 99% complete, compared to an average of the last five years of 91%. An estimated 80% of soft wheat was in good or excellent condition, unchanged from the previous week, FranceAgriMer said in a cereal crop report.

FranceAgriMer estimated that 82% of the French grain maize crop was in good or excellent condition by July 17, unchanged from the previous week and 75% a year earlier.

However, concern has mounted that the extremely warm weather in the southern part of the country this week may have caused some damage to maize crops, analysts said. The condition of spring barley was stable compared to the previous week at 73%.