France – planted wheat area drops by 8%

The area planted in soft wheat in France for the 2020 season is estimated at just over 4.6m hectares (11.5m acres), which is down almost 8% on last year and would be the lowest area of wheat planted in France since 2003. French spring barley plantings have jumped 9% to almost 700,000 hectares.

China – restaurants begin to reopen

China’s economy is slowly restarting after the COVID-19 enforced lockdown in February and March. Bord Bia’s Shanghai office reports that China’s food service sector is back open at 50% to 60% capacity, but said consumers are still nervous about gathering in tight places.

Brazil – beef exports rise in March

Brazilian beef exports for March stood at just under 126,000t, which was up 6% on the same month last year. This brings Brazilian beef exports for the first quarter of 2020 (Jan-Mar) to 353,500t, which is 5% ahead of the same period in 2019.

USA – biofuel industry grinds to a halt

The collapse in global oil prices has forced a number of large biofuel producers in the US to stall production as it is uncompetitive against oil now. As a result, US maize (corn) prices have plunged over the last week due to the surplus of maize this would leave in the US.