France faces worst wheat harvest ‘in the last 40 years’

Farming unions are calling on the government to help wheat producers get through the year.

France, the EU's top producer and exporter of soft wheat, is expected to see its wheat production this year drop almost 25 percent compared to 2023. | 

Francois Monier/AFP via Getty Images

August 9, 2024 
By Clea Caulcutt


PARIS — French wheat producers are set to have "one of the worst harvests in the last 40 years" after a wet winter and summer, France's agriculture ministry said on Friday.

France, the European Union's top producer and exporter of soft wheat, is expected to see its wheat production this year drop to 26.3 million tons, down almost 25 percent compared to 2023, according to figures from the ministry's statistics agency, Agreste.

The plunge in production is partly due to "weather conditions," according to Agreste, with France having experienced a very wet planting season last year and not enough sun in the spring and early summer.

Soft wheat is used to make cakes and bread, notably the famed French baguette, which has raised concerns that the country's iconic loaf will become more expensive. The price of a baguette, widely seen as an inflation benchmark for households in France, has increased in recent years as energy costs spiked in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

While boulangeries usually source local wheat to produce baguettes, it's not likely that prices will increase at this stage, according to Thierry Pouch, chief economist of the French Chamber of Agriculture. "The price of wheat and flour is only a small part of the total price of a baguette. For the moment, we don't see large-scale movement in prices for consumers," Pouch said in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro.

The smaller harvests, however, are bad news for France's wheat producers after a winter marked by social unrest among farmers. Farming unions, including the powerful FNSEA, have asked the outgoing government headed by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to give farmers financial assistance to get through this difficult year, French newswire Agence France-Presse reported.

According to Pouch, the average wheat producer could lose €30,000 to €50,000 due to the bad harvest.

The French government earlier this year offered farmers a slew of concessions after unions staged a series of blockages and protests against red tape and the end of certain agricultural aid programs, ahead of June's European election.