Strategie Grains has raised its estimate for EU soft wheat exports outside the bloc for the current 2021/22 season by more than one million tonnes as a fall in prices has made French wheat more competitive on world markets, it said on Thursday.
In a monthly report, the French firm pegged 2021/22 soft wheat exports outside the 27-country EU at 31.5 million tonnes, up from 30.4 million tonnes estimated last month.
Wheat prices have eased from last month's record highs hit on Euronext, as concerns about global wheat supply waned and amid worries over the Omicron coronavirus variant.
The fall in prices prompted a wave of demand from traditional importers. However, France was again widely expected not to be among suppliers to Algeria, its main export market, which booked around 700,000 tonnes on Tuesday.
'Export Projections'
"Although the opening of Algeria's market to Russian wheat will certainly not facilitate matters for EU exporters to this destination, our export projections have nevertheless increased since last month to China, Egypt, sub-Saharan Africa, Morocco and Vietnam," Strategie Grains said in a report.
The consultancy also lifted its forecast for EU maize exports in light of strong shipments from Romania and Bulgaria, which harvested larger crops and benefit from strong global demand, notably in the Middle East and Turkey.
It raised its estimate for the EU maize harvest to 68.3 million tonnes, from 67.8 million tonnes projected last month, due to record yields in France.
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