ONIGC Up's French Corn Crop 1.1MMT

ONIGC has upped its 2008 French corn crop estimate by 1.1mmt to 15.4mmt, a 7% increase on 2007.

The group left its 2008 French wheat production estimate unchanged at 37.4mmt, 22% up on 2007.

Soft wheat exports within the EU-27 are expected to be 7.1mmt, and exports to non-EU27 countries will rise to 9mmt, it added.

The figure for exports outside the EU-27 is substantially higher than the 4.9mmt exported during 2007-08, and reflects the weaker euro helping competitiveness, and there are also some quality issues with wheat from the Ukraine, it says.

Certainly Ukraine may have had a huge harvest in 2008, but only 11% of the crop is said to be of bread-making standard.