PARIS: A recent cold snap in France and Germany is likely to have caused limited damage to waterlogged grain fields, with heavy showers that further delayed sowings ahead of this year’s harvests of greater concern, analysts said.

“Since mid-December there has been no significant progress in sowings, which means there will be a large carry over to spring grains such as spring barley, maize and sunseed,” Jeanch-Charles Deswartes from French crop institute Arvalis said.

The fall in winter grain area could be more than 500,000 hectares, depending on whether farmers decide to resow winter cereals on waterlogged parcels, where crops barely emerged or are poorly tilled. “Even with perfect weather it will be hard for yields to compensate, which means one should expect a lower crop,” Deswartes said. “The question is whether the water excess will have hurt crops,” he added. The cold snap in the past days would likely hurt waterlogged fields, but was not enough to damage well-developed crops and helped farmers access their fields for resowing.