PARIS, July 30 (Reuters) – The French soft wheat harvest sped up last week as dry weather offered farmers a respite after heavy rainfall, but was still lagging far behind last year, farm office FranceAgriMer said on Friday.
About 47% of the French soft wheat crop area had been cut by Monday this week, up from 14% a week earlier, the office said in a cereal crop report. That compared with 87% of the crop harvested by the same time last year.
France, the European Union’s largest grain grower, is widely expected to register a rebound in wheat production, but heavy rainfall earlier this summer has delayed the harvest and raised concern about late losses to yields and a deterioration in grain quality, which determines wheat’s suitability for milling.
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The condition of French soft wheat in the week to July 26 stood at 75% of crops rated good or excellent, unchanged from a week earlier, FranceAgriMer said.
FranceAgriMer’s crop ratings give an assessment of yield potential and not grain quality, which is hard to determine until the crop is harvested.
The winter barley harvest was nearly over with 98% harvested by July 26. It was complete by the same period last year.
Some 39% of French spring barley had been harvested by the same time compared with 12% previous week and 53% the year earlier.
For grain maize, which is harvested in the autumn, FranceAgriMer estimates 90% of the crop in good/excellent condition by July 26, unchanged from the previous week. (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide Editing by Forrest Crellin and David Holmes)
