France raises maize crop estimate again

France has raised its official estimate of this year’s maize harvest for the third month in a row, saying summer rain helped non-irrigated farms to recover from last year’s drought.

The country’s production of grain maize, excluding crop grown for seeds, was estimated at 12.20 million metric tons, up from the 11.78 million tons projected in October and now 13.3% above the 2022 volume, the farm ministry said on Tuesday.

The yield gap between rain-fed and irrigated farms was expected to be smaller than last year and the average of the past five years, the ministry said.

Nonetheless, the ministry’s grain maize production estimate was 6.3% below the five-year average, with a sharp fall in planted area this year offsetting good yields.

In contrast, maize growers group AGPM last month put the crop at 13.1 million tons, exceeding the five-year average.
Farmers are wrapping up maize harvesting, with the final stages hampered by heavy rain in France since late October.

For soft wheat, France’s main cereal crop, the 2023 production estimate was lowered slightly to 35.10 million tons from 35.15 million last month, though that would be 4.2% higher than 2022 output and 2.1% above the five-year average.

For sugar beet, harvesting of which is ongoing, the ministry pegged 2023 output at 31.28 million tons, down marginally from the 31.29 million tons forecast last month.

That was down 0.7% from last year’s production, with an improvement in yields this year outweighed by a drop in area. It was also 8% below the five-year average.

In oilseeds, the ministry trimmed its estimate of this year’s sunflower seed crop to 2.15 million tons from 2.17 million tons, but the expected volume would still mark the biggest this century, supported by increased planting and good yields.

The ministry left its estimate of this year’s rapeseed crop unchanged at 4.27 million tons, down 5.4% from 2022 but 8.9% higher than the 2018-2022 average.

Tags: corn, France, crop forecast