The wheat harvest looks excellent in France. After three difficult years, the harvests promise results close to those of 2015, which had been exceptional. The harvest in France is expected to approach 40 million tonnes of cereals. Example of this abundance in the Hauts-de-France, the first cereal region of France, which accounts for 20% of national production, where Europe 1 followed the farmers putting a last blow to their crops.
Nine tonnes per hectare
In the Somme, this is the end of the harvest for Philippe, and it must be done quickly before the return of rain. The combine harvester of this grain connects back and forth on the last parcel of seven hectares. "Another day and then it will be good, if it was really sunny we would go faster, it's the rain that is pressing us," he says. But the producer is not worried, the harvest of wheat will be good with nearly nine tons per hectare in the department. Despite farmers' concerns, the late drought did not prevent maturation.
© Lionel Gougelot
The harvest will therefore be quantitative, but also qualitative, with grains with a high protein content, as explained by Luc, who operates near Doullens. "That means that we have grain that will meet the specifications of the different users of grain that are mills and starch." And that's the specific weight - we call it the "PS", that's to say the rate of protein - and the baking qualities that interest the millers ".
"We suffer" market prices
There is uncertainty, however, about the price. Harvests are good everywhere, in Europe as in Russia. These good harvests are synonymous with competition on the markets, which is not necessarily good news for the income of French grain farmers. "International prices also fix our domestic prices," says Luc. "So of course we are extremely attentive to what is happening elsewhere, but we suffer more than we can act on.There is no point in having a good harvest if we do not have a sale price. which covers our production prices. "
There is therefore no reason to predict, for the moment, the profitability of this 2019 harvest.