Wheat conditions around the world.

Conditions Reporting

We are approaching the exciting time of the year for grain, and you need to keep a close eye on markets (and the EP3 website, of course).

The world’s crop is being grown, and this is when the direction of next year’s pricing will largely be set. So, we will be updating you here on a regular basis on how the rest of the world is shaping up.

Keeping an eye on the condition of the crops around the world is important because if the rest of the world has poorer production, the prices can be driven higher due to lack of supply.

The condition of the crop is measured in a few major areas, and we tend to focus on how much of the crop is good or excellent. In this piece, we will look at the French and US wheat crops.

France

As of mid-April 2025, 75% of the French wheat crop is rated good to excellent, slightly below the ten-year average of 82.4%. This time last year saw a very low 64%, which marked the weakest start since 2020. The early 2020s had some very good starts, notably 2022 and 2023, reaching the low nineties. While the 2025 rating doesn’t match those peak performances, it remains comfortably above the decade’s low of 61% in 2020. We will keep a close eye to see whether this crop improves or deteriorates.

USA

At present, the US winter wheat crop is 45% good/excellent, down from 48% a fortnight ago. The average for this week over the past decade has been 46% good/excellent, so this crop is just below average. However, it remains significantly better than in 2022 and 2023.

The US winter wheat crop has been quite volatile in recent years. This year it has started off in a much poorer condition than the French crop. The crops in both countries are in a below average condition, and that could place things on a knife edge if conditions do not improve.