Romania’s 2012 wheat harvest down 15 percent y-o-y says agriculture minister

Newsroom 27/07/2012 | 11:05

Romanian farmers will harvest this year 2.6 tonnes of wheat per hectare compared to 3.5 tonnes last year, said agriculture minister Daniel Constantin this Friday according to Agerpres. This year’s wheat production will amount to 4.7 million tonnes, down 15 percent from 5.7 million tonnes in 2011, he added. However, the decrease is not worrying, believes the minister.

According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, last year’s wheat production totaled 7.1 million tonnes which means a 33 percent decrease of this year’s harvest.

“This year’s harvest is below that reported in 2011 but it is not a situation which should alarm in the sense that we wouldn’t have the necessary volumes for internal consumption. I have spoken with companies active on external markets and in 2012 exports are below the volumes sold abroad last year and thereby the volumes necessary on the internal market will not be affected,” said Constatin.

However, ot everyone agrees with the minister. Laurentiu Baciu, president of the Romanian Agricultural Producers’ League (LAPAR) said this week that the drought has caused local farmers severe losses and the situation calls for the declaration of the state of emergency which would also require stopping all exports.

In his opinion over 80 percent of the corn production could be compromised and the sunflower production is 50 percent lower. Wheat production too, was reduced to only half of last year’s harvest while prices have doubled, Baciu added.