France’s agriculture agency FranceAgriMer says the country’s 2017 corn crop is 14.8% higher despite a 2.6% decline in area, according to a report.
France’s 2017 corn area is estimated at 1.36 million hectares, lower on the previous year, but an epic performance from corn yields has fired the country to a crop of 13.2 million mt.
That takes the yield to 9.74 mt/ha, up from 8.24 mt/ha in the previous year, a rise of 15.4% year-on-year.
“Despite a dry winter and extreme temperatures in the spring, corn took advantage of the low but fairly well distributed rains in the summer to achieve a high average yield,” the report notes.
Some regions, such as Alsace and Champagne-Ardenne in the east of the country and Aquitaine and Occitania in the southwest, hit historically high yields in excess of 11 mt/ha.
For quality elements such as moisture, energy, protein and fat are in line with 2016 results, according to the data.
AgriCensus
The drought in the Argentine grain zone will last until the end of February, which will reduce the yield of crops such as corn and soybeans in the 2017/18 season. Such forecast was made on Wednesday by meteorological agency Applied Climatology.