French farmers are expected to sow less maize and rapeseed but more sugar beet as they seek to boost output before European Union sugar quotas are lifted later this year, the farm ministry said on Monday. However, the ministry also said dry and cold weather might have impacted crop development and that the coming weeks would be crucial.
"Weather conditions this spring are not favourable to winter crops. The lack of water is hampering plant development. Furthermore, low temperatures, frosts in some areas, and daytime temperature differences could cut some crops' yield potential," the ministry said in a crop report. Forecasters estimate that temperatures in France should remain slightly below average in the next week.
In its first estimate for the 2017 harvest, the farm ministry estimated the area sown with grain maize at 1.39 million hectares this year, down 2.3 percent from 2016 and 14.5 percent below the 2012-2016 average. It said dry soils may have deterred French farmers from sowing maize this year after facing two seasons of poor yields due to drought.
The ministry raised its forecast for the sugar beet area slightly to 472,000 hectares from 468,000 hectares seen in April, and 17.2 percent above the 2016 area and nearly 20 percent above the 5-year average. A sharp rise in sugar beet sowings has been anticipated after sugar processors contracted additional area with farmers ahead of the scrapping of EU production quotas at the end of September.
The ministry left its estimate of France's soft wheat area for this year's harvest, including a small amount of spring wheat, unchanged from last month and little changed from 2016 at 5.2 million hectares, it said in the report. Total barley sowings were also unchanged versus last month at 1.9 million hectares and 0.7 percent above 2016.
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