The winter rapeseed area was pegged at 1.3 million hectares, up from 1.2 million in an initial outlook in December. That was 16.8 percent below the 2018 area and 11.3 percent less than the average of the past five years, the ministry said in a report.
It did not give a reason for the upward revision compared with December, noting instead the consequences of drought last year in disrupting rapeseed sowing. "Estimates of rapeseed area could be revised if the state of development leads farmers to dig up crops and replace them in the spring," the ministry said.
Parched conditions during the sowing season also penalised rapeseed sowing in other European Union countries and some analysts see the EU harvest falling further this year after a poor 2018 crop. In another setback for this year's rapeseed crop, farmers in France and Germany are set to destroy around 10,000 hectares of rapeseed before spring due to traces of non-authorised genetically modified seed.
Problems with rapeseed sowing have supported expansion in the winter cereal area in France. The farm ministry left virtually unchanged its estimate of the 2019 winter soft wheat area at 5.0 million hectares, up 2.9 pct from 2018, and of the 2019 winter barley area at 1.3 million hectares, also up 2.9 pct year on year. However, durum wheat, the variety used in pasta, was set for a sharp fall. The area was estimated at 318,000 hectares, down 8.5 percent from last year although up slightly from the ministry's initial estimate of 308,000 hectares in December.
Wheat and rapeseed are almost entirely made up of so-called winter varieties in France, while barley production includes a significant amount of spring crop. In revisions to 2018 crop production, the ministry raised its estimate of sugar beet production to 39.4 million tonnes from 39.0 million previously. That was down 15 pct from a record 2017 crop but 14 percent above the average of the past five years.