French winter wheat remains below 7 tons

Winter wheat production in France stands at just under 7 tonnes per hectare this year, according to estimates from the French agricultural statistics agency Agreste.

Wheat has suffered seriously this year from heavy rains late last year and this spring. Wet conditions during last fall reduced the area planted to winter wheat by 0.5 million hectares. In addition, the conditions reduced yields by more than 5 percent to just under 7 tons per hectare.

Despite the planting of more spring wheat, this is not enough to compensate for the loss of winter wheat. Moreover, the yield of the summer variety is also not high at 6.6 tonnes per hectare. Combined with high disease pressure, the total wheat harvest remains at 29.7 million tonnes. This is 5.4 million tonnes, or 15.4 percent, less than last year. In 2020, the harvest was slightly lower at 29.2 million tonnes. A harvest of more than 30 million tonnes is considered normal in France.

barley

Barley yields are down 6 percent on average compared to last year. Winter barley yields are 6.4 tons per hectare, compared to 7.1 tons per hectare last year. Spring barley harvests are larger. This is due to the larger area, as yields are 2 percent lower than a year ago.

Conditions also lead to a lower rapeseed harvest. According to these forecasts, winter oilseed yields will remain below 3 tonnes per hectare. The area devoted to this crop is not much smaller than last year, but due to lower yields, the crop was down by 7.6 percent.