France's farm ministry on Monday raised its estimate of this year's maize harvest to a record due to favourable weather, bringing it closer to market expectations of a big crop. The ministry now forecasts the country will gather 16.95 million tonnes of grain maize, up from the 16.31 million estimated last month. The current record dates from 1997 when France harvested 16.75 million tonnes, official data showed.
"Maize crops this year benefited from good early growth and then ample rainfall in July and August," the ministry said in a monthly crop report. "In October, mild, dry weather allowed decent conditions for maize harvesting." Traders and analysts have put the French harvest at above 17 million tonnes in view of favourable weather. The large French crop is expected to contribute to record European Union production this year above 70 million tonnes.
The farm ministry's new estimate was more than 15 percent higher than last year's grain maize crop and 13 percent above the average of the past five years. It was based on an average yield of 10.1 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), up from 9.7 t/ha projected last month and 8.4 t/ha in the 2013 harvest. It left unchanged an estimate of the harvested area of 1.68 million hectares, down from 1.76 million last year. The ministry did not mention any quality problems affecting harvested maize, an issue cited by traders in some regions as a consequence of the heavy summer rain that boosted yields.
It reiterated, however, that quality in the soft wheat harvest was mixed. It left its wheat production estimate virtually unchanged at 37.5 million tonnes. The ministry increased its estimate of this year's sugar beet crop, to 37.72 million tonnes from 36.89 million tonnes expected in October, again citing beneficial summer rainfall. The revised estimate was 11.8 percent above last year's crop and 9.7 percent higher than the five-year average. This was based on an national yield of 92.7 t/ha, up from 90.9 t/ha seen last month and 85.7 t/ha in 2013, and an area of 407,000 hectares, up slightly from 406,000 estimated last month and above last year's 394,000 hectares.
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