FranceAgriMer raises forecast for soft wheat exports for outside of EU

French state-backed farm agency FranceAgriMer raised its forecast for French soft wheat exports outside the EU in a monthly outlook released Wednesday, while exports to the EU were revised slightly lower, citing increased feed requirements due to drought damage to corn.

Exports to countries outside the EU increased by 100,000 mt on the month to 10.1 million mt (+15.1% y-o-y), while exports to fellow EU member states were revised upward by 60,000 mt to 7.07 million mt (-11.9% y-o-y).

France exported 3.6 million mt of wheat between July 1 – October 10, 2022, according to data received from the European commission.

Overall wheat exports are expected to increase by 371,000 mt and were pegged at 17.29 million mt, up 2.2% from 2021/22.

French soft wheat ending stocks are expected at 2.13 million mt, a decrease from the September estimate, and remain 22.9% below the 2.76 million mt that was held last season.

FranceAgriMer also updated its outlook on the country’s barley exports intra-EU exports were broadly unchanged from last month’s figures, down by 5,000 mt at 2.9 million mt (+4% y-o-y), while exports outside the bloc were cut by 100,000 mt to 2.5 million mt (-26% y-o-y).

The first forecast for French corn exports of 2022/23 to the EU from FranceAgriMer suggested they would be down by 1.9 million mt on year, to 2.9 million mt (-39% y-o-y), while exports to countries outside the EU are also expected to decrease to 360,000 mt (-39% y-o-y).

Overall corn exports are expected to fall on year to 3.4 million (-38% y-o-y) from its 2021 figure of 5.5 million mt.  

French durum export estimates to the EU and third countries went unchanged from September levels, at 770, 000 mt and 110, 000 mt respectively. This reflects a decrease of -22.1% y-o-y from 989, 000 mt for exports to the EU but an increase of +16.8% y-o-y from 94, 000 mt for third countries.