French soft wheat exports outside the European Union in 2022/23 are expected to reach a three-year high of 10.3 million tonnes, farm office FranceAgriMer said in its first projections for the new crop season that began this month. The expected 2022/23 volume is 17% above a reduced estimate of 8.8 million tonnes for 2021/22 and the highest since 2019/20, supply and demand data published by the office showed. France, in common with other EU wheat-exporting countries, has seen brisk demand for the start of the new season as importers seek alternatives to war-disrupted Ukrainian supplies and drought has increased Morocco’s need to import.
For 2021/22, FranceAgriMer lowered its estimate of non-EU exports from 9.1 million tonnes in June, as it cut the figure for the fourth month in a row. The office has said previously that record prices linked to the war in Ukraine slowed demand towards the end of last season. For soft wheat exports within the EU, the office projected France would ship 7.0 million tonnes in 2022/23, down by 12% from an unchanged estimate of 8.0 million for 2021/22. Soft wheat stocks were projected to fall by nearly 30% in 2022/23 to 2.3 million tonnes compared with an increased estimate of 3.3 million for 2021/22.