PARIS: France’s farm ministry on Tuesday forecast a sharp decline in maize planting this year in the European Union’s biggest grain producer, expecting farmers to be discouraged by drought losses last year and lower margins than other crops.

In a first forecast for 2023 grain maize plantings, the ministry pegged the area, excluding crop grown for seeds, at 1.25 million hectares, down 7.6% from 2022.

Including seed production, the grain maize area was projected at 1.33 million hectares, its lowest level in more than 30 years. Maize requires regular moisture, whether from rainfall or irrigation, during summer.

Frequent showers in recent weeks have eased drought in most of France but low groundwater reserves remain a concern for this summer. Prices of fertiliser and gas, used to dry maize after harvesting, remained relatively high for farmers while market prices for maize had fallen sharply, the farm ministry said.

In contrast, the area devoted to sunflower seed was expected to rise nearly 1% to 868,000 hectares to the highest level this century, the ministry said.

Despite drought-affected yields last year, sunflower seed remained attractive thanks to favourable market prices and lower cultivation costs than other crops, it added.

For sugar beet, plantings were revised down to 380,000 hectares from April’s initial forecast of 382,000 hectares. The latest projection is down 5.3% from last year and 11.8% below the five-year average. The ministry made very minor adjustments to wheat and barley sowing estimates.

For soft wheat, France’s most-produced cereal and almost entirely sown during autumn, the ministry kept its 2023 area estimate at about 4.77 million hectares, 1.6% above last year’s level and stable versus the five-year average.

The total barley area was still projected at 1.82 million hectares, down 2.3% from last year. Spring barley sowing was revised up slightly but at 491,000 hectares would be 13.6% lower than last year. For rapeseed, France’s main oilseed crop, the ministry’s area estimate was held at 1.34 million hectares, up 9.4% from last year and 11.1% above the five-year average.