The French Ministry of Agriculture estimated on Tuesday that the area sown to common wheat for the 2023 harvest will increase to 4.75 million hectares, 1.7% more than the area harvested this year.
The expected level would also be 0.1% above the average of the previous five years, the ministry said in a report.
France is the largest grain producer in the European Union and soft wheat is the most produced cereal in the country.
In its first planting estimates for next year’s crop, the ministry forecast that the winter barley acreage would reach 1.30 million hectares, 1% more than in 2022 and 3.9% above the average of the last five years.
The rapeseed area was set at 1.29 million hectares, 4.9% more than in 2022 and 6.5% above the five-year average.
The Ministry’s forecasts refer to winter varieties sown at the end of summer and in autumn. In France, wheat and rapeseed are almost exclusively winter crops, while barley is mainly sown in spring.
The increase in planting areas, together with the favorable conditions of the first months of growth, allows us to foresee good production prospects for 2023, although the weather conditions from spring tend to have a greater influence on the final yields.
On the other hand, the sowing of durum wheat was estimated at 233,000 hectares, 4.4% less than the previous year and 12.5% below the five-year average.
In the revisions of the estimates of the 2022 harvest, the Ministry set the production of maize in grain, affected by the drought and excluding the crop for seeds, at 10.58 million tons, below the 10.74 million forecast. one month ago.
Reflecting a cut in yields and a shift in acreage towards feed corn, the revision leaves output 30.4% below last year’s bumper crop and 22.6% below the five-year average. .
Regarding sugar beet, also affected this year by the drought, the estimated production fell to 31.55 million tons, compared to 31.94 million last month. The new estimate is 8.2% lower than in 2021 and 14.6% lower than the five-year average.
The ministry kept its 2022 production estimates for common wheat, barley and rapeseed almost unchanged.