French soft wheat shipments outside the European Union rose to their highest in three years, Refinitiv data showed, as exports to Algeria ramped up following a slow start in July.
Soft wheat exports to destinations outside the 27-country bloc totalled 834,600 tonnes in August, the second month of the 2021/22 season, an initial estimate based on Refinitiv loading data showed.
Algeria was the largest non-EU destination for French soft wheat last month, with an initial estimate of 335,900 tonnes, followed by Ivory Coast with 122,100 tonnes.
Total barley exports outside the EU reached 909,900 tonnes last month, the highest for August in at least a decade.
That was dominated by 712,980 tonnes of feed barley and 104,200 tonnes of malting barley shipped to China. Another 88,520 tonnes of feed barley was sent to Mexico and 4,200 tonnes of malting barley was shipped to Sweden.
Two ships expecting to carry 60,000 tonnes of barley to Mexico and 30,000 tonnes of soft wheat to Ivory Coast were cancelled in mid-August.
Soft wheat exports to China are expected to ramp up in the coming month as two ships totalling an expected 136,300 tonnes are waiting to load.
French soft wheat exports outside the EU over the full July-June 2021/22 season are expected to be 3 million tonnes higher than last season at 10.5 million tonnes, according to farming agency.
For sea exports within the EU, soft wheat shipments last month were 100,000 tonnes, while all-grain shipments totalled 172,200 tonnes.
Most French grain exported inside the EU is transported via non-maritime routes.
Total grain shipments to all destinations from French ports in August – including barley, malting barley, maize, waxy maize, malt and durum wheat – were at the highest on record stretching back to the 2009/10 season at 1.96 million tonnes.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Forrest Crellin; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)