PARIS: France revised its forecast for soft wheat exports after improved Egyptian orders. FranceAgriMer, the French crop bureau, lifted its forecast to 8.80m tonnes for the country’s soft wheat exports outside the EU in 2014-15.
The figure still represents a sharp decline on the 12.22m tonnes shipped by France, the EU’s top wheat producer and exporter, outside the bloc in last season, with the expected decline a reflection of a poor quality harvest last year, thanks to harvest-time rains which encouraged ripe kernels to sprout, lowering their milling specifications.
However, Wednesday’s upgrade left FranceAgriMer notably less gloomy on export prospects than four months ago when, in its first forecast for shipments outside the EU, it pegged them at 8.0m tonnes.
Indeed, the FranceAgriMer estimates foresee that France’s wheat exports outside the EU will, over the rest of 2014-15, return to their usual position of exceeding shipments within the bloc.
Exports to destinations inside and outside the bloc were, as of November, running neck and neck, at 3.5m tonnes each.
FranceAgriMer had initially expected that other EU countries would take the majority of French wheat exports, including to feed markets such as Spain, as the poor quality of the 2014 crop drove more discerning milling wheat importers to alternative origins.
However, while shipments to Algeria, which has particularly high specifications, indeed tumbled 47% in the season to November, French merchants have searched afar to find alternative buyers, such as South Korea, which is expected in 2014-15 to import its biggest volume of French feed wheat in 26 years.
Furthermore, France has had notable success winning milling wheat orders from Egypt’s Gasc grain authority, which enforces lower quality hurdles than some other buyers.
