August 11, 2009
French '09 cereal output seen down one percent on-year
France's production of cereals will edge one-percent lower this year from 2008 to 69.6 million tonnes, led by lower soft wheat and corn production, data released by the Agriculture Ministry Monday (Aug 10) show.
The ministry didn't give reasons for the decline. Though the data show that France, the EU's largest producer of wheat's, soft wheat crop will fall by 2.2 percent this year to 36.1 million tonnes, and its hard wheat crop by 0.1 percent to 2.1 million tonnes. The declines are in the winter wheat season.
The country's production of barley, its second most important cash crop after soft wheat, is expected to increase, however, by 3.4 percent to 12.6 million tonnes.
Corn output will be down 2.8 percent, according to the ministry estimates, to 15.6 million tonnes.
