PARIS, France (Reuters) — France gathered 40.8 million tonnes of soft wheat in this summer’s harvest, much more than the 39.3 million estimated last month that was already a record level, the farm ministry said last week.
Harvest results confirmed wheat was little affected by heat wave and drought conditions at the start of summer and had retained strong yield potential, supported by favourable winter and spring weather, the ministry said in a report.
There had already been agreement among traders and analysts that France, the European Union’s biggest wheat grower and exporter, produced its biggest-ever crop, but the farm ministry’s revised figure was above most market estimates ranging between 39 and 40 million tonnes.
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The new official estimate is nearly nine percent above last year’s production.
The increased crop could add to the task for traders in marketing French wheat, after a slow start to the 2015-16 export season in view of ample supply across Europe.
The ministry also raised its forecast for the grain corn harvest to 13.5 million tonnes from 13.2 million projected last month, although this would still be down 26.4 percent from a record 2014 crop following weather damage.
“Drought and high temperatures in June and July penalized the development of (corn) crops, even though rainfall in August has improved the situation,” the ministry said.
Yields in the corn harvest would be extremely varied, with the yield for non-irrigated grain maize expected to be 13 percent below the average of the past five years, while the irrigated-yield corn would be four percent under the five-year mean, it said.
Some grain corn badly affected by drought will be harvested as feed corn, while growers may also keep other grain corn for forage, it added.
In its first forecast for this year’s sugar beet crop, the ministry pegged production at 31.9 million tonnes, down 15.8 percent from last year.
Sugar beet, like corn, suffered from summer heat and drought, adding to the impact of a reduced area after farmers planted less crops in response to high stocks from last year, the ministry said.
