French Spring Barley Conditions Seen by RMI Improving After Tour

The condition of spring barley crops in France has improved in recent weeks after plants received timely rainfall and moderate temperatures, said Matthias Wree, a managing partner at industry researcher RMI Analytics in Lucerne, Switzerland.

French spring barley production may be about 3 million metric tons, said Wree, whose company held a crop tour last week in Champagne-Ardenne, the country’s largest producing region. That compares with an estimate of 2.87 million tons released June 21 by Brussels-based farm lobby Coceral. The spring-crop harvest still will be below output of 4.6 million tons last year, when farmers expanded area after a cold snap killed some winter crops, leaving more fields available to plant, Wree said.