April 15, 2009
French government sees 2009 cereal planted area down 1.7 percent on-year
The area planted to cereals in France will shrink by 1.7 percent to 7.65 million hectares this year from 2008, the government said Tuesday (April 14).
It also said last year's cereal production surged 18 percent from a year earlier to a provisional 70.48 million tonnes.
The expected fall in planted area in 2009 would follow five consecutive years of expansion and is due largely to lower soft wheat acreage, the Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry said in its April report. All regions showed lower soft wheat planting.
A ministry spokeswoman said the modest decline in 2009 crop acreage compares with the unusually high 7.78 million hectares under cereals in 2008.
The spokeswoman also said some acreage previously planted to wheat had been rotated to other crops.
The ministry also estimates that the area planted to barley will rise by 0.6 percent to 1.81 million hectares, the fourth consecutive annual increase.
