France: Cereal harvest showing good quality but spring barley protein may be low

The cereal harvest in France, the European Union's largest grain producer, was showing generally good quality, including for its main soft wheat crop, farming agency FranceAgriMer said on August 9.

The 2019 soft wheat crop was showing satisfactory protein content, with a 10.5-11.5% range in the western half of the country and 11.5-12.5% in the eastern half, it said in a harvest note issued with crop institutes Arvalis and Terres Inovia.

Weak protein readings in early harvesting on the west coast had caused concern that the wheat crop might struggle to meet milling standards, but traders say most of the crop was reaching the 11% level needed.

Specific weights, another measure of wheat quality, were showing a high level of 79-80 kilos per hectolitre and were consistent across the country, FranceAgriMer said.

Hot, dry weather in the run-up to harvesting should also mean the wheat crop will have decent Hagberg readings, another quality measure, and low moisture levels, it added.

For barley, it said winter crop was showing satisfactory quality but spring crop was showing low protein between 9% and 9.5% on average, which could result in some of the crop being downgraded from malting to feed barley.