Winter wheat areas in France expand sharply

The French Ministry of Agriculture has reported its initial estimate for the area planted with autumn crops in France. Soft wheat planting has seen a notable increase of 8.7% from the previous year, covering 4.51 million hectares. Despite this, it still falls 0.8% short of the five-year average. There are, however, decreases in the planting areas for durum wheat, down by 1.9% to 206 thousand hectares, and autumn barley, down by 0.8% to 1.23 million hectares. On the other hand, the planting area for autumn rapeseed is expected to grow by 0.6% to 1.34 million hectares. Furthermore, the ministry has revised its 2024 corn harvest forecast, including that for seed production, to 15 million tons, up from the previous forecast of 14.62 million tons, marking a significant 15.5% increase from the previous year.