France will increase the area under spring crops

The French Ministry of Agriculture predicts an expansion of spring crops in the country in 2024, as local farmers prefer them due to the reduction of winter crops last fall due to heavy rains, Reuters reports.

In particular, the Ministry predicts an increase in corn acreage by 9.6% for the year, to 1.44 million hectares. However, this figure remains 5% below the average level of the last 5 years.

Also, the estimate of spring barley acreage has been increased from 496 thou hectares to 502 thou hectares, which is 12.2% more than last year, but 15.8% lower than the average of the last 5 years.

For soft wheat, the Ministry raised the area estimate to 4.4 million hectares from 4.39 million hectares estimated in April, which is still 7.5% below the year-ago level.

The estimate of rapeseed area remained unchanged at 1.33 mln hectares, which is 0.8% lower than in 2023.

Tags: corn, France, sown area