French officials have, once gain, lifted expectations for the country's wheat exports after data showed shipments from the European Union's top producer running 33% higher than a year before.
FranceAgriMer, the French farm office, which a month ago lifted its estimate for soft wheat shipments outside the EU by 100,000 tonnes, raised it by a further 200,000 tonnes on Wednesday to a record 11.8m tonnes.
The upgrade reflected the curbs on exports by Black Sea exporters, following a drought last year which was, in Russia, the worst on record.
It was also reflected in a cut of 185,000 tonnes, to just under 2m tonnes, in the forecast for French wheat stocks at the close of the 2010-11 crop year.
If realised, this figure would represent a fall of some 40% in inventories over the season.
North Africa leads
The revision followed the release of customs data France's exports gathering pace in November, hitting 1.5m tonnes for destinations outside the EU.
The rise was led by demand from North African importers denied access to Black Sea supplies.
Indeed, for the first five months of the crop year, which started in July, French shipments to Egypt soared 52% to 1.5m tonnes and to Algeria by 61% to 1.7m tonnes, with those to Morocco more than quadrupling to 982,000 tonnes.
The pace of grain exports has forced some French buyers to turn abroad for supplies, with animal feed groups reportedly importing sorghum from the US and corn from Ukraine as alternative, besides feed wheat bought from European neighbours.
Strong prices
Paris milling wheat price for January hit E258.75 a tonne last week, a two-year high for a spot contract. The lot stood at E255.00 in lunchtime trade on Wednesday, up 0.4% on the day.
Bruno Le Maire, the French agriculture minister, on Tuesday rejected restrictions on exports as a means of cooling the market.
