French corn rated good or excellent fell 4 percentage points in the week through Sept. 3 as conditions deteriorated in Aquitaine, the biggest growing region, following hot and dry August weather.

Corn getting the top ratings slid to 69 percent from 73 percent in the previous seven days, crop office FranceAgriMer wrote in a report on its website today. At the same time last year, 80 percent of the grain was rated good or excellent.

Southwest France, including the Aquitaine region that grows 20 percent of the country’s corn, got 26 millimeters (1.02 inches) of rain in August, 58 percent less than usual, the Agriculture Ministry reported yesterday. Temperatures of 22.8 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit) were 2.3 degrees above normal. France is the European Union’s biggest corn producer.

Crop conditions in Aquitaine showed the biggest drop among reported regions, with corn receiving the top two ratings sliding to 66 percent from 75 percent a week earlier, according to the report.

France’s soft wheat, durum wheat and barley crops have all been harvested, according to FranceAgriMer.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net