News

The good news of the new season for grain farmers? The rise of wheat prices which gained 30% between the end of June and the end of August, with levels never reached since April 2014. "No one had envisaged such a rise," said the president of the Association General Producer, Philippe Pinta. "We have been waiting for this for 6 years". At stake, disappointing crops in Germany and Poland, but also in Ukraine or Russia, the two giants of the Black Sea. "For some farmers, price increases are a boon. But for others, the price effect will not offset the volume effect, "warns Eric Thirouin, the deputy secretary general of the FNSEA. In France, the harvest would reach 35 Mt this year, against 36.6 Mt last year and an initial estimate, before the heat wave of this summer, 38 Mt. Fortunately, for grain, quality will be at the rendezvous with a protein level and a specific weight beyond expectations. It will still be necessary to sell it: for the first time in 2017, French wheat has sold more in the European Union than in third countries. The catastrophic harvest of 2016 (28.6 Mt) has deterred many buyers from traditional markets in the southern Mediterranean, at a time when Russia was putting the turbo, both in quantity and quality. Two years after one of the worst harvests in history, French grain farmers have not reached the end of the tunnel yet.