French farmers made little progress last week in sowing wheat and harvesting maize, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed on Friday, suggesting rain delays could continue into winter.

For soft wheat, France's main cereal crop, farmers had completed 83% of sowing for next year's harvest by Dec. 2, up from 80% a week earlier, FranceAgriMer said in a weekly report.

That was well below the 99% sowing progress a year ago and showed sowing was running a week behind the average pace for the past five years.

Winter barley sowing was 91% complete, edging up from 89% the previous week, also lagging the five-year average by one week, FranceAgriMer said. Harvesting of this year's grain maize (corn) crop was 94% complete by Monday, up from 92% the previous week and running six days behind the five-year average.

Rainfall in France, the European Union's largest grain producer, was 80% above the seasonal norm last month, marking the fourth-wettest November in the past 60 years, according to public weather service Meteo France.

Following a very wet October, rains have kept many fields waterlogged, preventing some farmers from entering fields with crop machines.

Analysts expect the rain delays to lead to a fall in the sowing area for wheat and winter barley. For maize, traders say some crop may not be harvested until the new year while some areas may be affected by mycotoxin fungal disease.

Cold and mostly dry weather this week brought light frosts that might have helped farmers by making soil more firm, though a return of showers from Friday could curtail field work again.

The condition of wheat and barley that has already been sown declined again last week, suggesting that emerging crops are also being damaged by the damp weather.

For soft wheat, 73% of crops were rated good or excellent, down from 75% a week earlier and 82% a year ago. Winter barley good/excellent ratings lost one point to 74%.

Friday's crop report is the last until mid-February as FranceAgriMer interrupts its weekly updates during the winter dormancy period for crops.