French flour to bear extra costs from poor wheat quality

PARIS, Aug 23 (Reuters) - A fall in the average quality of France's soft wheat harvest this year will lead to an increase in flour prices linked to additional work for millers to sort good grains from poor ones, a senior member of French millers group ANMF said on Monday. However, there should be no impact on total volume of flour produced in France this year, said Erick Roos, chairman of ANMF's process commission and director general of Moulins Soufflet, one of Europe's biggest millers. Heavy summer rain in France, the European Union's biggest grain producer, has slowed field work and led to low readings in some key milling criteria, although the harvest is still expected to rise well above last year's poor crop in volume. "It will not be simple and it will cost a little more even if it's too early to say how much. What's for sure is that the extra cost has nothing to do in terms of proportion compared to the surge in wheat prices," Roos said. French soft wheat prices on the cash ...