IT'S an ill wind that blows nobody any good, they say, but Wales's food producers are about to discover that the extreme weather conditions that have blighted France's harvest this year could have played right into their hands.

Searing summer temperatures, accompanied by either prolonged drought, sudden flooding or other freak natural or man-made occurrences have added up to little short of a disaster for those responsible for much of France's much-loved gourmet produce.

The recent heatwave killed millions of French chickens, wiped out much of the nation's trout stocks and accounted for a substantial part of its honey crop and fruit trees.

The Bollinger champagne harvest was hit by a storm of hailstones as large as golf balls; the Prestige oil tanker spill contaminated miles of French oyster beds; and truffle producers have complained that the heat has set back their industry by years.

As a consequence the UK's restaurants, supermarkets and delicatessens are bracing themselves for the prospect of paying higher prices for imported French goods or else having to look elsewhere for alternatives.

And this, according to chef Angela Gray, is where Wales's specialist food producers could, and should, step in.

"The 'Champagne Charlies' may miss their 'Bolly' and there are always the purists who will argue that only oysters from a certain part of the world will do," said Ms Gray.

"But we have wonderful oysters here in the Menai Straits, and we have our own Cariad Blush sparkling wine in Wales.

"In fact when it comes to most of the French produce that seems to have been hit by the extreme weather, we in Wales can provide all of it barring maybe the truffles.

"They have always thought their food is the best, and that French cuisine leads the way.

"But in recent years, as you can see from the rise of New World wines, people have come to realise there are other countries out there offering wonderful produce, and we in Wales are part of this.

"People love the quality of Welsh produce and it has been holding its own in the world."

As many top Welsh restaurants already rely strongly on local produce, it appears that Wales's gourmets will not necessarily have to go without.

Michael Vaughan, whose wife Wendy was the first female chef in Wales to win a coveted Michelin star, said that he doubted his restaurant The Old Rectory Country House at Colwyn Bay would be affected by a poor French harvest.

"We try not to buy an awful lot of French produce because we try to buy as much local and Welsh food as we can," he said. "We try and push Welsh lamb and Welsh beef and it's only when we cannot get the right quality that we have to source it elsewhere. And I know a lot of top restaurants which are concentrating on Welsh produce."

Mr Vaughan acknowledged that after years of tension between Welsh and French food producers over meat exports and the BSE and foot-and-mouth outbreaks, the irony of a reversal in fortune for the French would not be lost on many in Wales.

"In our restaurant we are already finding a resistance to French produce due to the attitude of the French during the Iraq war," he said, "the top hat on several years of tension caused by the French."