French Wheat Area Lowered

The French agriculture ministry (Agreste) has released its second forecast for the French soft winter wheat acreage for the 2009/10 crop.

It reduced it's acreage estimate to 4.96 mln ha from it's December forecast of 5.03 mln ha, and the 5.06 mln ha planted last season.

That's a decrease of 2%, allowing for an anticipated small reduction in yield this will probably see this season's soft wheat crop in Europe's biggest producer at around 36mmt.