After weeks of sweltering heat and drought, farmers and analysts fear France’s maize crop could be the smallest in 50 years, dealing another blow to European production of the cereal. Grain trade association Coceral cut its outlook for European Union maize production by nearly 8% to 52.7 million metric tons, the lowest since 2007.
Weather Damage
French maize conditions plummeted to their lowest in at least 15 years last week, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed. “Yield damage is increasing day by day because of the heat and lack of rain,” said Benoit Fayaud, senior grain analyst at Expana.
The firm currently projects the French crop at 8.9 million metric tons, one-third below last year’s level, and Fayaud said it sees scope for production below 8 million tons for the first time since 1976 – another year of extreme summer weather.
Salvaging Plants
Some farmers in western France started cutting non-irrigated maize crops even before grain pollination this week to salvage plants for use as livestock fodder, said Franck Laborde, head of growers group AGPM.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
