Home / Commodities / Commodity News / Agritel sees this year’s French soft wheat harvest below 35 mln T

Agritel sees this year’s French soft wheat harvest below 35 mln T

The soft wheat crop in France this year will be below the average of the past 10 years despite a rebound from 2020’s poor harvest, at 34.93 million tonnes, due mainly to heavy rain this summer, consultancy Agritel said on Tuesday.

Prospects for a smaller than expected harvest in the European Union’s largest wheat grower, combined with a cut in supplies from other large producing countries, has sent the European wheat market soaring to multi-year highs in recent weeks.

Agritel’s estimate was well below the 36.69 million tonnes forecast by the French farm ministry early this month. Last year, France harvested a historically low crop of 29.18 million tonnes due to extremely bad weather.

“At the beginning of June, the crops were promising. The 2021 harvest was expected in the top four historical productions at nearly 38 million tonnes (Mt). At the end of the harvest, it is a real disappointment,” Agritel Director General Michel Portier said in a statement.

The repeated bad weather during the summer hampered the filling of the grains and degraded the quality, he said.

The share of grain used for feed will be significantly higher than last year due to lower test weighs, a key factor in milling quality, so much so that the French and European animal feed market will not be sufficient to absorb it, Agritel said.

“We will probably have to export this wheat to the world feed market, which is mainly located in Asia,” Portier said.

There would be enough milling wheat to meet demand, but significant work will be needed to sort good grains from poor ones.

The French wheat harvest has been delayed by repeated rain this year, with farm office FranceAgriMer estimating that only 91% of soft wheat had been gathered by Aug. 16, while harvesting was over by early August last year.

Agritel said its forecast was based on a survey of industry players on Aug. 18-23.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Recent Videos

Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and International Shipping