French soft wheat rating stable, spring barley sowings on hold

Some 68% of French soft wheat was rated as in good or excellent condition by March 4, unchanged from a week earlier and down from 95% a year ago, farm office FranceAgriMer said on Friday.

The rating was close to the lowest for the time of year since 2020, when French wheat crops were affected by heavy rain during planting, FranceAgriMer said in a cereal report.

Winter barley and durum crop conditions were also at four-year lows, down one percentage point from the previous week at 69% and 73% good/excellent, respectively.

For spring barley, just 28% of the expected area had been sown by Monday, just 1 percentage point above 27% a week earlier, the office said. That was well down on 96% progress a year ago and also below the five-year average of 71%.

Tags: durum, French, soft wheat, winter barley, spring barley, crop