French maize crop conditions declined last week to their lowest rating in more than 10 years, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed, suggesting that recent rain has brought limited benefit to fields damaged by heatwaves and drought.
An estimated 47% of French grain maize crops were in good or excellent condition by Aug. 22, down from 50% the previous week, FranceAgriMer said in a report on Friday.
That marked a fresh low for the time of year in FranceAgriMer crop ratings going back to 2011.
This year’s rating has shed about 35 percentage points since early July, spoiling what had been a good start to the growing season.
The decline in the score has slowed since mid-August, when storms broke the latest heatwave, but traders have said the rain may have come too late or not reached some stricken areas.
Maize is among the crops to have suffered most from what is expected to be Europe’s worst drought in 500 years.
A year ago 91% of maize was rated good or excellent, FranceAgriMer said.
The hot, dry summer has helped with the gathering of other cereals. Harvesting of wheat and barley finished several weeks ago, earlier than usual.
Grain maize, usually harvested from September, was running 12 days ahead of the average growth pace of the past five years, FranceAgriMer said.
