ONIC sees French soft wheat area up

French cereals office ONIC on Wednesday said it expected the country's soft wheat area (spring and winter) to rise by 0.5 percent in 2006 to 4.89 million hectares.
ONIC said rapeseed sowings would reach 1.3 million hectares, up 100,000 hectares on 2005 and near the record reached in 1999/2000. It said biofuel demand was the main reason for the 8 percent increase in the area.
In its first area estimate for the 2006/2007 season, ONIC pegged the total winter grain area sown so far in France at 6.85 million hectares, up from 6.81 million hectares in 2005. It also put winter barley sowings at 1.06 million hectares, up 0.4 percent from 2005.