France's farm ministry on Tuesday cut sharply its estimate of this year's soft wheat harvest while forecasting a steep fall in maize production, underlining the impact of severe weather that has damaged farmland across Europe.
Heatwaves and drought have strained European crops in recent weeks, contributing to a surge in Paris wheat futures to five-year highs.
France has been less exposed than more northerly regions but as the European Union's biggest grain producer its declining harvest prospects have fuelled market jitters about supply losses.
Yield Potential
"Alternating periods of intense heat and violent storms in certain regions, as well as localised rainfall at harvest time, have reduced the yield potential of most crops in 2018," the ministry said in a crop report on Tuesday.
It estimated French soft wheat production at 35.1 million tonnes, down 1 million tonnes from its July forecast and 4 percent below 36.6 million tonnes harvested in 2017.
This was still above some market estimates that have put the French crop at 33-34 million tonnes.
Extreme Conditions
The ministry said the extreme weather ahead of harvesting had led to extremely varied yields in soft wheat and as a result wide differences in crop estimates.
It reduced its estimate of the average soft wheat yield to 7.11 tonne per hectare, down from 7.31 t/ha in July and below last year's 7.37 t/ha.
In its first forecast for 2018 maize (corn) harvest, the ministry pegged production of grain maize, excluding seeds, at 12.8 million tonnes, down almost 10 percent from 14.3 million last year.
"Summer crops (maize, sunflower, soybean, sugar beet) are enduring the effects of high temperatures and low rainfall since June. In the absence of irrigation, yield potential is much lower compared with 2017," the ministry said.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
