(AgWeek) – France’s decision to suspend duck and geese output until the end of the first half in a bid to contain the spread of bird flu in the southwest would lead to drop in corn consumption of about 100,000 tons, traders said on Monday.
Government officials and producer representatives agreed last week to halt new rearing in southwestern France until all farms in the region have finished their output cycle and all equipment is cleaned and disinfected. This would likely take until June, the farm ministry said.
“The slowdown in the poultry business will lead to a drop in corn consumption of at least 100,000 tons. We’ll have to find export outlets to avoid a worsening of the bearish trend,” a broker said.
France’s farm office FranceAgriMer estimated, before the duck output suspension, that French internal consumption would be at 6.5 million tons and that the corn surplus would remain nearly stable at 2.9 million tons in 2015/16 despite a drop in output of 5.1 million tons.
“There will be an impact. We are talking about four to six months of fallowing, without output, and thus without grain consumption, knowing that palmipeds – ducks and geese – eat mainly corn,” Anne Kettaneh from corn producers group AGPM said.
Paris-based Euronext corn futures on Monday were trading more than 10 percent below their price when the first bird flu outbreak was discovered in France on Nov 24.
As well as bird flu concerns, prices are also pressured by strong international competition.
AGPM said 1 ton of grain corn can produce 300 kilograms of duck and 25 kg of foie gras.
