Agriculture: wheat production down 30%, the worst in 30 years – Le Parisien

M new auvaise for farmers. French wheat fields have not been very productive because of bad weather. The expected return is down 30% in one year for the harvest 2016 and should reach the lowest rate since 1986, the year of severe drought, according to an estimate of the Ministry of Agriculture released Friday.

the national wheat production should reach 29.1 million tonnes, falling by 29% from 2015, as’ crops have suffered from an excess of water and the lack of light “because of weather of spring, said Agreste, the statistical service of the Ministry. “The flowering and grain filling were held in bad conditions.” Furthermore, “the climatic conditions favored the proliferation of diseases and pests,” says Agreste

Agriculture. Stéphane Le Foll announced a decline in yields of 25 to 30%

the Paris region, the north and east of France most affected

it is in the Paris Basin and northern regions and east of France that the fall in yields is greatest. Yields should thus fall by 40% in the Ile-de-France, 38% in the Hauts-de-France and 31% in the Centre-Val de Loire compared to the average from 2011 to 2015, according to calculations of the Ministry .

However Agreste emphasizes that when these estimates were made in late July, the harvest had barely begun in some regions, particularly in Normandy and in the Hauts-de-France. “The final estimate is still subject to change until the end of the harvest,” warns the body.

Elsewhere, overproduction is collapsing world prices

this drastic drop in French harvest comes as other wheat producing countries know them a strong overproduction, which brought down world prices and puts even more in difficulty french farmers. The Orama union, which is the branch “crop” of the FNSEA, had already sounded the alarm bells last week. “There are disasters that you can not imagine”, with yields on some farms “three times lower than usual” and that “half or three-quarters of sales in less “emphasized Philippe Pinta, President Orama.

The firm Agritel felt for his part in a note published this week that” a grain farm of 120 hectares will be a minimum deficit of EUR 60 000 “this year.