French wheat exports quicken but may miss targets

French wheat exports in April increased from March and recorded stronger year-on-year growth than a month earlier amid rising shipments to Algeria and Morocco, but the pace was not strong enough to be in line with official projections required to meet 2021-22 targets.

French soft wheat exports to non-EU countries totalled 666,100t last month, up from 624,200t a year earlier, according to provisional data. This was also higher than the 528,500t shipped internationally in the past five weeks from 28 March to 1 May, according to provisional weekly export data from the European Commission.

Morocco was the primary importer of French soft wheat exports last month, with 336,900t heading to the destination. Cumulative shipments since the start of the 2021-22 marketing year in July now sit at 1.23mn t, up from 1.02mn t exported to the destination at the same time last year.

Morocco was followed by Algeria, with 204,600t shipped to the destination last month. This brought cumulative exports to Algeria to 1.42mn t, down from 1.57mn t at the same time in 2020-21.

In contrast, no wheat exports were recorded for China — the main buyer of French soft wheat imports so far in 2021-22. Cumulative shipments to the destination are at 1.91mn t, up from 1.77mn t a year earlier.

France's non-EU soft wheat exports have reached a combined 6.38mn t over July 2021-April 2022, according to vessel line-up data, compared with 6.75mn t estimated by the commission.

Sluggish exports earlier this year — in March in particular — mean France has shipped less wheat internationally so far in 2021-22 than at the same time last year, despite the country's production recovering compared with a year earlier. Non-EU wheat exports in July-April in the previous season totalled 6.87mn t, which were already at their lowest for the period in three years.

France is anticipated to export 9.5mn t to non-EU countries in 2021-22, according to estimates by national agriculture and sea products agency FranceAgriMer. This implies that the country must export at least 2.75mn t of wheat internationally in May-June, a volume that was only reached in 2015-16.

By Bilal Muftuoglu