Wilting French maize to shrink Europe’s harvest as farmers fear repeat of 1976

By Gus Trompiz and Luiza Ilie PARIS, July 10 (Reuters) – After weeks of sweltering heat and drought, farmers and analysts fear France’s maize crop could be the smallest in 50 years, dealing another blow to ‌European production of the cereal after growers cut back on plantings. Grain trade association Coceral cut its outlook ‌for European Union maize (corn) production on Friday by nearly 8% to 52.7 million metric tons, the lowest since 2007. That followed a 7% cut in ​the production forecast by commodity data firm Expana, with both forecasters citing weather damage in France and also Hungary. With France in its third heatwave since late May and little rain forecast in the coming days, crop losses could mount and outweigh any boost to the European harvest from much-improved rainfall in Romania. French maize conditions plummeted to their lowest in at least 15 years last ‌week, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed. “Yield ⁠damage is increasing day by day because of the heat and lack of rain,” said Benoit Fayaud, senior grain analyst at Expana. The firm currently projects the French crop at 8.9 million ⁠metric tons, one-third below last year’s level, and Fayaud said it sees scope for production below 8 million tons for the first time since 1976 – another year of extreme summer weather. SALVAGING PLANTS FOR FEED Some farmers in western France started cutting non-irrigated maize crops even ​before ​grain pollination this week to salvage plants for use as livestock ​fodder, said Franck Laborde, head of growers group ‌AGPM. The AGPM last week projected a 30% drop in production to 9.5 million tons, the lowest this century, and Laborde said it expects to revise down its outlook, partly as early cuttings will reduce the are …

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