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Despite the record drought this summer, the wheat harvest is maintaining the average for the last ten years in France. It is estimated at around 35 million tonnes this year. Satisfactory production for cereal farmers, who are nevertheless very worried about the rise in the price of fertilizers, which has tripled in the past year, as a result of the war in Ukraine.
The real concern in the future for cereal growers is fertilizer, which is necessary to ensure the quality and quantity of production. Cédric Benoit is Deputy Secretary General of the General Association of Wheat Producers: ” We are very worried about the supply of fertilizers, we already had a tense situation due to the post-Covid recovery and there the Ukrainian crisis is exacerbating this deficit in ammonia production. Since to make fertilizer you need ammonia and to make ammonia you need gas. We will certainly have a production deficit and there is a good chance that it will get stuck in the spring. »
Another concern for cereal farmers for the coming months is the volatility of wheat prices: “ We lost almost 25% of prices between the beginning of the outbreak of the war when prices exploded and today, we don’t know anything about it, explains Eric Thirouin, president of the association. We farmers, we are in the most total unknown so we send warning signals and we try to work with the rulers to ensure that we find the right cursors in relation to this war which has completely upset all our landmarks and everything we usually did. »
This year, in any case, after eight years of income at half mast, the earnings of cereal growers have improved.
►To read: War in Ukraine: a fundamental rupture in the markets