PARIS - French farmers expect to harvest about 37.7 million tonnes of sugar beet this year, down sharply from the five-year average after severe summer weather affected yields, growers group CGB said on Wednesday.
This was also below last year's harvest, mainly because of a smaller planted area as sugar producers looked to cut output that had been boosted by the end of European Union production quotas, the CGB told Reuters.
France's farm ministry last week projected the harvest, now under way, at 37 million tonnes against 39.9 million tonnes the previous year.
This year's planted area stood at 451,000 hectares, down from about 480,000 hectares last year, the CGB said.
The yield was expected to rise to 83.5 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), compared with 81.9 t/ha for 2018's drought-hit crop.
That was still 5.4 t/ha below the five-year average, the CGB said.
Sugar beet crops have endured drought again this summer as well as record-breaking temperatures in France.
French sugar maker Tereos separately estimated its 2019 sugar beet production at more than 17 million tonnes, based on an average yield of 86 t/ha projected on Sept. 9, with wide disparities between regions.
It did not give a comparative estimate for 2018.
The start of the harvest ranges from Sept. 17 to Sept. 26 depending on the region, with processing likely to last about 120 days in its nine French sugar factories, the cooperative group said.
Neither the CGB nor Tereos gave sugar yield estimates.
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide Editing by Gus Trompiz and David Goodman) ((Sybille.deLaHamaide@thomsonreuters.com; +331 4949 5145;))
