PARIS: Updated quality results from this year’s French soft wheat harvest showed test weights and protein content, two key milling criteria, were below the average of the past five years, according to data published by farm office FranceAgriMer.

This year’s rain-affected soft wheat crop in France, the European Union’s biggest exporter, is set to deliver the smallest volume since the 1980s, and there has been concern that milling quality has also been hurt.

For test weights, which indicate how much flour can be extracted from wheat, the survey conducted with crop institute Arvalis showed that 26% of the 2024 crop scored above the common standard of 76 kilos (167 pounds) per hectolitre, down from an average of 76% of the crop for 2019-2023.