PARIS: French soft wheat exports outside the European Union totalled 459,261 tonnes, down sharply from a season’s high the previous month, customs data showed on Friday.
France had enjoyed a surge in wheat exports in April, supported by attractive prices, but a strengthening in the euro then contributed to a slowdown in overseas demand. The May volume took French soft wheat exports since the start of the 2016/17 season on July 1 to 4.53 million tonnes, down 60 percent from the same point in 2015/16. A sharp drop in French exports has been widely anticipated after the EU’s top wheat grower producer recorded its worst harvest in three decades.
France also exported 225,455 tonnes of barley outside the EU in May. The monthly volume was dominated by 184,597 tonnes shipped to Saudi Arabia, in a continuing run of sales to the Middle Eastern importer. However, cumulative non-EU barley exports in 2016/17 were down 50 percent from a year earlier at 2.27 million tonnes, the data showed.
