OREANDA-NEWS. February 19, 2015. Farm office FranceAgriMer on Wednesday increased its forecast of French soft wheat shipments outside the European Union this season to 9.8 million tonnes from 8.8 million in January, raising its export outlook for the fourth month in a row.

The raised export forecast for the current 2014/15 (July/June) season would still be down 19.8 percent on 2013/14, data published by FranceAgriMer on its website showed.

The increased exports contributed to a cut in FranceAgriMer's forecast of soft wheat stocks at the end of 2014/15 to 3.63 million tonnes from 4.34 million last month. The stockpile was 54.5 percent above last season's level.

Export demand for French wheat has been boosted by a drop in the euro, fading competition from Russia and an unusual series of sales to Asia for livestock-feed wheat.

The office also raised its outlook for barley ending stocks to 1.74 million tonnes from 1.49 million estimated last month, and its maize stocks forecast to 4.15 million tonnes from 3.99 million.7