PARIS: French farmers made little progress harvesting maize last week as this year's crop continued to lag the usual pace, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed on Friday.

An estimated 7% of the grain maize crop area had been harvested by Oct. 4, up only slightly from 2% a week earlier and well below 47% progress a year ago, FranceAgriMer said in a cereal report.

Growth of maize crops has been curbed this year by cool spells in spring and summer, while heavy rain since late September has held up early harvest work.