French corn harvest higher than last season
French farmers this season harvested about 12.5 million tons of corn grain. That is 13.5% more than last year, when production was negatively influenced by unfavourable weather conditions.
This year´s harvest is still 6% lower than the average over the previous 5 years, agricultural statistics service Agreste reports.
The area of corn grain was 1,239 thousand hectares which was 132 thousand hectares less than in 2022. Thanks to a much higher yield per hectare of 9.85 tons compared to 7.85 tons a year earlier, the total production ended significantly higher.
For green corn, the French could harvest 15.9 million tons, an increase of 15.6% compared to 2022 and more or less at the same level as the 5 year average. A slight decrease of the area at 1,244 thousand hectares was sufficiently compensated by a higher yield of 12.77 tons/hectare.
Agreste also reports that the harvest of sunflowers was the highest in almost 25 years. Production totalled 2.1 million tons, 19.4% more than last year and 36.7% higher than the average over the years 2018 – 2022. Although the area of 833 thousand hectares was slightly smaller than last year, the yield per hectare was about a quarter higher at almost 2.1 tons per hectare. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, a number of French farmers have switched to sunflowers because of the high market prices. Agreste notices however that in some regions like Normandie and Brittany sunflowers are still a rare sight in the fields.
