As US president Donald Trump targets champagne in an escalating trade tussle with Europe, makers of one of France’s quintessential luxuries are losing support from domestic drinkers.

FRANCE’S wheat harvest, the European Union’s biggest, advanced in the past four days as sunny weather and temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) allowed fields to dry and farmers to cut crops.

INTERNATIONAL buyers are abandoning European grain for cheaper suppliers such as the US, leading European agriculture market analysts say.