The French farm ministry on Monday raised slightly its output forecasts for this year's maize and sugar beet harvests, but the new estimates were still about 10 percent below 2009 production levels. Maize grain output was now seen at 13.6 million tonnes, up from 13.5 million tonnes' forecast in October. The revision reflected a rise in the projected average yield to 8.9 tonnes a hectare from 8.8 tonnes last month.
The forecast crop was down 10.9 percent on 2009 and 8 percent below the 10-year average, the ministry's statistics service said in a monthly note. The year-on-year decline was due both to a 2 percent decline in average yield and a 9 percent fall in area.
Estimated sugar beet production was revised up to 31.7 million tonnes from 31.2 million tonnes last month, as the average yield was raised to 83.2 tonnes a hectare from 82.0 tonnes last month. Compared with 2009, output was down 9.5 percent.
Sugar content in the beet crop was seen at 17.7 percent, up from 17.4 percent a month ago but below 19.5 percent last year. The farm ministry left virtually unchanged its estimates for grain crops harvested earlier this year, with the soft wheat crop still seen at 35.7 million tonnes, down 1.5 percent on 2009, and barley production still at 10.2 million tonnes, down 21.0 percent on the year.