France raises soft wheat area estimate to 4.57 million hectares

PARIS: France’s farm ministry on Tuesday increased its estimate of the area sown with winter soft wheat for the 2025 harvest to 4.57 million hectares from 4.51 million in its initial projection in December.

The revised estimate was up 10% compared with the area harvested in 2024, when repeated rain led to the smallest crop since the 1980s, and 0.4% above the average area of the past five years, the ministry said in a report.

The ministry nonetheless said the area sown with soft wheat was still relatively low in comparison with the past 30 years and that planting in the Centre-Val de Loire region, a major crop belt, was little changed from last year due to waterlogged conditions.

Soggy fields in several regions could affect winter cereal yields or lead to re-sowing with spring crops, it added. Soft wheat is the most produced cereal in France, the European Union’s biggest grain grower, and almost exclusively sown during autumn as winter crop.