PARIS, France (Reuters) — French farmers have plowed up some of the area seeded to rapeseed because of damage suffered from heavy rain, causing the French farm ministry to cut its seeded area estimate May 6.
Analysts expect the reduced crop area to cost France its place as the European Union’s top rapeseed producer this year, with Germany forecast to regain the leading position after enjoying more favourable growing conditions.
The rapeseed area in France is now estimated at 3.66 million acres, down from 3.76 million seen last month and now eight percent lower than the 2012 level, the farm ministry said.
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The Centre region, Poitou-Charentes in the west and Lorraine in the northeast accounted for 90 percent of a decrease of 316,300 acres compared with last year, it said.
“Due to the heavy rain during winter, rapeseed in these zones experienced difficulties in plants establishing themselves and emerging, leading in some cases to plots being dug up,” the ministry said in a monthly crop report.
Like other oilseed crops, rapeseed is used to produce edible oil, biodiesel and livestock feed.
In a first estimate for this year’s French grain corn crop, the farm ministry put the area at 4.05 million acres, down about half a percent from last year but up almost one percent from the average of the past five years.
As of May 1, 46 percent of the projected area had been seeded, down from 54 percent a year earlier, it said.
Cold weather in late March and early April delayed seeding of spring crops like corn and spring barley in Europe, although warmer conditions have since allowed field work to accelerate.
Farm office FranceAgriMer said in a weekly update that 57 percent of grain corn had been sown as of April 29, up from 29 percent the previous week and close to 60 percent a year ago.
For soft wheat, the farm ministry raised its estimate slightly to 12.31 million acres from 12.28 million last month, leaving the area up 2.4 percent on year.
