France: Grain sowing area to decrease by 7%

According to the French Ministry of Agriculture, the area sown for grain crops for the 2024 harvest will be reduced to 6.81 million hectares, down 6.8% year-on-year, despite the expected expansion of spring crops. The sowing area of soft wheat will be reduced by 7.7% to 4.39 million hectares, UkrAgroConsult reported on April 16.

Due to heavy rainfall since mid-October 2023, the area under winter soft wheat was reduced by 7.7% to 4.34 million hectares, under winter durum wheat – by 6.4% to 0.22 million hectares, under winter barley – by 6.1% to 1.28 million hectares.

Part of the areas that farmers were unable to sow during the fall sowing season will be sown with spring barley. The French Ministry of Agriculture forecasts that the area under spring barley will increase to 0.5 million hectares (+10.7% compared to last year), under spring soft wheat – 0.02 million hectares (+6.4%).

The area under leguminous crops this year will decrease by 4.3% to 0.27 mln ha, including peas – by 5.6% to 0.19 mln ha.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .