French soft wheat crop shows above-average protein -FranceAgriMer

Initial quality results from this year’s French soft wheat harvest showed 93% of the crop with protein content above the milling requirement of 11%, up from a five-year average of 87% of the crop, farm office FranceAgriMer said on Wednesday.

The survey, based on data representing 80% of the harvest, also showed that 74% of the crop had test weights above 76 kg per hectolitre (kg/hl), down from a five-year average of 79%, while 98% of the crop had Hagberg falling numbers above 240 seconds, compared with an average of 88%.

Frequent showers and cool temperatures last month in northern France and a swathe of northern Europe have raised concern about quality loss.

The results were better than in comments made in a harvest report with Arvalis earlier in August, but FranceAgriMer emphasised that a large part of the soft wheat harvesting near the sea in the North West, which had been carried out after the rains end of July, was not integrated into its first observations.

Definitive quality estimates are due on Sept. 13, it said.

Expected deterioration of grain quality in northern Europe has added to doubts about global milling wheat supply as war in Ukraine threatens Black Sea trade and drought hurts North American crops.

France, the European Union’s biggest wheat exporter, is nonetheless expected to have suffered less than northern European regions where harvesting was less advanced when wet weather arrived.

In volume terms, the French farm ministry forecasts that the country will produce 35.6 million metric tons of soft wheat in 2023, 5.6% more than last year.

Tags: soft wheat, milling, harvest, grain, France, crop, estimates, quality