FranceAgriMer continue to reduce the crop condition rating of winter and spring crops. Soft wheat rated good to excellent declined another 2% week on week to 67% G/E. This represents a reduction in the G/E rating of 20% since May. There was further talk of drought despite some decent rainfall in parts of central and northern France over the last 14 days. The last 7 days have been much dryer than predicted though and the week ahead only see’s decent falls expected across the central and very far north of France.
Germany is expected to see just trace falls in the week ahead. Germany is not as dry as France but will also be keeping a close eye on the weather map over the next 30 crucial days. The Ukraine / Russia war making production in Europe vitally important this summer.
The SE of France, prime durum country, is once again expected to be dry. Combine this with a dry outlook for the east of Italy and much of Saskatchewan and the outlook for durum prices continues to improve. French durum rated at just 2% excellent and 62% good, 11% of the crop rated poor to very poor.

US hard red winter wheat harvest is about 24% through in Texas. Rainfall across Texas and Oklahoma, although mostly welcome, has slowed the harvest pace of winter wheat and threatens to downgrade quality if it persists. The 7-day outlook for the HRWW belt shows some of next week’s heaviest rain will fall across the Oklahoma panhandle and Kansas. Not what the contract harvesters want to see but cattle producers there will be happy after such a long dry spell. The US central corn belt will see continued rainfall next week, possibly delaying the finalisation of the 2022 corn plant. US white wheat prospects in the PNW look much better than last year, although damp, cool weather has delayed development. The spring wheat sowing window in the Dakotas and Red River Valley is closing quickly, most producers will pull the pin on sowing spring wheat in the next 7 – 10 days.