Government agency FranceAgriMer has raised its forecast for French soft wheat exports outside the European Union this season following an unexpected series of shipments to Yemen. French wheat exports are still set to fall sharply from last season, but the sales to Yemen and less intense competition than feared in Algeria could help limit the impact of a weather-hit French harvest that brought low yields and mixed grain quality, the agricultural and fisheries agency said on Wednesday.
French soft wheat exports outside the EU were now seen at 4.8 million tonnes in the 2016/17 season to June 30, up from 4.7 million estimated last month and taking into account 96,000 tonnes loaded for Yemen in the past month, it said.
The raised forecast would be nearly 63 percent below 2015/16 exports outside the EU.
France is the EU's biggest wheat producer and usually by far its biggest wheat exporter, a position being challenged this season by Romania and Germany.
"The idea at the moment is that we're not coping too badly given the harvest we had," Remi Haquin, a crop farmer and president of FranceAgriMer's grain committee, told reporters.