ALBANY, NEW YORK, US — Nearly 27,000 tonnes of French wheat was shipped to the United States in late August destined for Albany, New York, where Ardent Mills operates a flour mill, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the Port of Rouen.

Denver, Colorado, US-based Ardent Mills, which also reportedly imported wheat from Poland in 2023, declined to comment on the matter when contacted by World Grain.

US wheat planted area steadily has declined in recent decades as farmers have shifted to more profitable corn and soybeans. That, combined with production issues in the last several years, has led end users to be more reliant on foreign suppliers. US wheat imports reached their highest point in six years in the recently completed 2023-24 marketing year due to consecutive years of lower production due to drought, according to the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture. A relatively small percentage of the 3.76 million tonnes of wheat imported to the United States came from the European Union.

The EU exported 474,00 tonnes of soft wheat to the United States in 2023-24, the highest level in more than 20 years, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the European Commission. The Commission’s data also showed that at least 53,000 tonnes of European wheat have been sent to the United States since the current marketing year began on July 1.

France, the largest wheat-producing country in the European Union, made the shipment to New York despite having harvested its smallest crop in 40 years due to extremely wet weather. With traditional customers in Africa and Europe having recently switched to less expensive wheat from Russia and Ukraine, France is looking for new markets to export its wheat.

Although the United States typically produces enough wheat in aggregate to meet aggregate domestic demands, factors such as high rail transportation rates and at times higher wheat prices compared to European and other foreign suppliers have led to the increase in imports.

However, with the largest domestic crop in eight years anticipated in 2024-25, the FAS projects US wheat imports will decline by 24% in the current marketing year to 2.85 million tonnes.