PARIS: France exported 1.5 million tonnes of soft wheat outside the European Union in March, the largest monthly volume so far in the July/June 2014/15 season, customs data showed.
The total volume of French wheat shipped outside the EU reached 8.2 million tonnes by the end of March, the data showed. This was still 13 percent lower than in the July-March period in the 2013/14 season.
France is the EU’s largest wheat exporter. Export demand has been boosted by a drop in the euro and an unusual series of sales of livestock-feed wheat to Asia, although activity has fallen off in recent weeks. The March volume came after 1.4 million tonnes of soft wheat shipped in February, which was then a season high. Algeria remained the largest buyer of French wheat in 2014/15, with imports totaling 2.1 million tonnes by end-March. However, sales in March were the second lowest this season with only 121,000 tonnes shipped and the July-March total was down 49 percent on the same period in 2013/14.
Egypt was second in line with 1.9 million tonnes in the first nine months of the 2014/15 season, nearly treble the volume in the same period the previous season, helped by shipments of 437,000 tonnes in March, the largest monthly volume so far. March also saw the largest French soft wheat exports this season to Morocco at 177,000 tonnes, but the total this season was still 50 percent below the same 2013/14 period at 696,000 tonnes.
Shipments to Asia also boosted the monthly haul, with 238,000 tonnes exported to Thailand and 128,000 tonnes to Bangladesh. French soft wheat exports to all destinations totalled 2.1 million tonnes in March. This brought the volume so far in 2014/15 to 14.05 million tonnes, down 2 percent from the year-earlier period.
In barley, China was again the top destination with 306,000 tonnes exported in March. This brought barley exports to China in the first nine months of the season to 1.8 million tonnes, claiming the bulk of 2.4 million tonnes of barley shipments outside the EU, up 54 percent from the year-earlier period. French barley has benefited from competitive prices this season and Chinese animal feed makers’ move to diversify supplies.
