France lifts sugar beet estimate again, cuts wheat, rapeseed

France's farm ministry sharply raised its estimate of the 2017 sugar beet crop for a second month in a row in the European Union's largest producer, mainly due to larger expected yields and an area estimate now close to a record. Sugar beet production is now estimated at 42.6 million tonnes in 2017/18, up from 41.9 million last month, and 22.8 percent above last year's volume.
Supplies would be boosted by high yields pegged at 90 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), up from 89.5 t/ha estimated in October and 85.5 t/ha last year, and a sharp rise in the area sown now seen at 473,000 hectares, just 1,000 hectares off the 1990 record. Forecasters had been expecting a jump in beet output in France and other EU countries after farmers planted more of the crop ahead of sugar production quotas being scrapped.
The ministry also slightly lifted its monthly forecast for this year's grain maize crop, to 13.1 million tonnes from 13.0 million last month, now 11.9 percent above last year's level. This month's revision was mainly due to a rise in the expected yield, now estimated at 9.56 t/ha from 9.32 last month, which was offset by a cut in the area estimate.
The ministry said the French maize crop's yield estimate had significant upside potential given very favourable weather during the summer and despite a global deficit water balance. The fodder maize harvest was also seen higher than last month to 17.8 million tonnes from 17.5 million last month due to a rise in estimated yields.
For soft wheat, the ministry trimmed its production outlook to 37.5 million tonnes from 37.9 million seen in October. Still, this year's crop in the EU's largest exporter would still be up 36.1 percent compared with weather-hit 2016 output and the third largest soft wheat crop ever after 1998 and 2015, the ministry said. In oilseeds, the ministry also cut its estimate for the rapeseed crop from last month, now seen at 5.35 million tonnes, against 5.5 million in October as a smaller area outweighed higher estimated yields, seen at a record 38.0 t/ha.