Heavy rains damage French sunflower crops

In Germany, UFOP is commenting that the sunflower area in France, the EU’s fourth biggest producer of sunflowers, will likely be significantly smaller than expected. Consequently, the EU Commission could reduce its previously positive area forecast to project negative figures for 2016.

UFOP notes: “France apparently suffered significant losses as heavy rains caused flooding. The French ministry of agriculture currently estimates the sunflower area at 587,000 hectares, down 5 per cent from a year earlier. The EU Commission projected 619,000 hectares for France still in May. According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft mbH (AMI), the Commission’s forecast is still very vague anyway. The experts in Brussels have previously put EU sunflower production for the 2016 harvest slightly higher than a year earlier. However, given what has been happening not only in France, the previous year’s level will probably be difficult to attain.”

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