December 11, 2008
France's 2008-09 corn output forecasts up, ending stocks forecasts
French 2008-09 corn production is expected to reach 15.5 million tonnes, up 79,000 tonnes from the November estimate and up 8 percent on year, said L' Office National Interprofessionnel des Grandes Cultures, or ONIGC Wednesday (December 10).
Corn 2008-09 exports were revised down slightly, resulting in ending stocks forecasts increasing to 3.5 million tonnes, from November's 3 million tonnes. This is significantly larger than 2007-08's ending stocks of 2.2 million tonnes.
Corn is struggling to compete with feed wheat for animal feed after a bumper crop of lower quality wheat.
Estimates for the 2008-09 soft wheat crop remained inline with November estimates at 37.3 million tonnes, a 21 percent increase on year.
ONIGC said the increased production of soft wheat was due to an increase in the plantings and high yields.
Forecast soft wheat exports to European Union countries were revised down to 6.9 million tonnes, from November's 7.1 million tonnes.
However, non-EU exports were maintained at 9 million tonnes, versus 2007-08's 4.9 million tonnes.
France has a favourable export position, helped by the strengthening dollar and weakening euro, along with production problems in wheat producing countries including Ukraine and Argentina, said ONIGC.
On December 10, ONIGC issued the following domestic crop estimates. Figures are in millions of tonnes.
|
　 |
2008-09 Forecast |
2007-08 Estimate |
|
SOFT WHEAT |
|
|
|
Total resources |
35.955 |
30.029 |
|
Production |
37.321 |
30.775 |
|
Exports to EU |
6.880 |
7.293 |
|
Exports to non-EU |
9.000 |
4.914 |
|
Ending stocks |
3.624 |
2.686 |
|
CORN |
|
|
|
Total Resources |
16.014 |
15.189 |
|
Production |
15.498 |
14.355 |
|
Exports to EU |
5.045 |
4.980 |
|
Exports to non-EU |
0.400 |
0.214 |
|
Ending stocks |
3.464 |
2.190 |
|
BARLEY |
|
|
|
Total Resources |
10.703 |
8.558 |
|
Production |
12.305 |
9.586 |
|
Exports to EU |
3.416 |
3.354 |
|
Exports to non-EU |
1.650 |
1.127 |
|
Ending stocks |
1.878 |
0.718 |
|
HARD/DURUM WHEAT |
|
|
|
Total Resources |
2.335 |
2.204 |
|
Production |
2.140 |
1.989 |
|
Exports to EU |
0.700 |
0.743 |
|
Exports to non-EU |
0.400 |
0.415 |
|
Ending stocks |
0.435 |
0.243 |
