2024-08-06 14:30:25
The organization, which queried operators across the industry in early August and based on a representative sample of more than 80 percent, noted that if this forecast is confirmed, it would mean a 27 percent drop in the total soft wheat surface area compared to the average of the past five years.
Argus Media analyzed in a press release that this is “the result of repeated bad weather from sowing to harvesting”. Heavy rains in many agricultural areas since last autumn have prevented the smooth completion of sowing: according to the Cabinet, the area cultivated with bread grains has decreased by 10.5% in one year.
Several factors lead to low yield
Yields also fell to 5.93 tonnes per hectare, according to Argus Media estimates, down 18.7% from the five-year average.
“Since the late 1980s, soft wheat yields below 60 quintals (editor’s note: 6 tons) per hectare have disappeared in France. But climate disasters are setting us back. First there was the very poor harvest in 2016, with a yield of 53.74 quintals/hectare and today it is 2024”, commented Gautier Le Molgat, director of Argus Media France, in a press release.
Among the reasons for low yields, the team cited “poor establishment, suffocation of the roots due to excess water, strong pressure from diseases and weeds (weeds, editor’s note), too low temperatures during the propagation phase, and a lack of sunlight.”
French cereal production estimates released on Friday
The Agriculture Ministry will release estimates on Friday for grain production in France, the main soft wheat producer and exporter in the European Union.
Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau visited a cereal grower’s operation in Beauce last week and predicted a worse harvest than in 2016, saying the government was prepared to trigger special aid measures if the harvest was indeed bad. Some agricultural groups have called for emergency measures.
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