France: Barley exports outside the EU increase in November but still short of volume shipped in August
French soft wheat shipments outside the European Union last month reached their lowest for a November since the 2018/19 season as shipments to China slowed following a brisk October, Refinitiv data showed.
Soft wheat exports to destinations outside the 27-country bloc totalled 802,700 tonnes in November, the fifth 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, with an initial estimate of 256,700 tonnes, followed by China with 237,700 tonnes.
That is down from the 514,800 tonnes of soft wheat loaded for China in October, which was the highest monthly volume so far to the Asian country in 2021/22.
French barley exports outside the EU reached 354,400 tonnes, up from the 269,300 tonnes recorded in October, but still short of the 909,900 shipped in August.
China continued to dominated barley flows, with the November shipments including 255,800 tonnes of feed barley and 62,000 tonnes of malting barley for the Asian country. Another 28,000 tonnes of malting barley were shipped to Colombia while 8,500 went to Brazil.
French loadings are being closely monitored by traders this season given incomplete figures for France in official European Union grain export data due to a technical problem.
France is the EU's biggest grain exporter.
China could overtake Algeria again as the main destination for French wheat from December. Traders have reported large sales to China for the coming months while Algeria is expected to turn to non-French supplies to fill its most recent tender purchases. read more
Grain shipments to all destinations from French ports last month - including barley, malting barley, maize, waxy maize, malt and durum wheat - totalled 1.36 million tonnes.
The loading data is subject to revision and can differ from monthly customs figures depending on when ships are counted as leaving France.
17 December, 2021
