Agro Perspectiva

Romania. Agriculture Minister: Wheat crop enough to cover domestic consumption

31.08.2010 12:57 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — Agriculture Minister: Wheat crop enough to cover domestic consumption Romania’s bread-making quality wheat is enough to cover domestic consumption, as this year’s production is ten percent higher compared to 2009, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Mihai Dumitru after a meeting with representatives of farming producers. ’There is no shortage of bread-making wheat, even though more than 20 percent of production is of substandard quality. However, we have enough wheat to cover domestic consumption, given that production increased 10 percent, and wheat exports are mainly for fodder use,’ said the Minister of Agriculture. According to data supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) supplied to Agerpres, Romania’s total wheat crop was close to 5.7 million tonnes, representing 86 percent of the original estimates of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), but almost 10 percent higher than the 2009 production. In spring this year MADR experts were forecasting a total wheat production of around 6.64 million tonnes, but now, as the harvest was completed all over the country, the wheat production stands just at 5,691,532 tonnes, according to final MADR data. The yield per hectare this year was 2,778 kilograms, whereas the original estimates stood at 3,221 kg. Compared to 2009, Romania’s wheat crop is 9.62 percent higher (499,532 tonnes) although the sown surface this year was 2.048 million hectares, as to 2.202 million hectares in 2009. According to MADR, more than 3.38 million tonnes of the 2010 wheat harvest are stored in specialized silos and 2,161 million tonnes are stored with individual households, Agerpres informs. Determinations are currently made at the Institute of Food Bio-resources (IBA) to check the quality of the wheat of this year’s crop, because according to the farmers, more than 30 percent of the crop is unfit for bread making. For this reason, processors announced that they would have to import wheat and flour of adequate quality for domestic consumption and implicitly raise the price of bread. Although international wheat quotes climbed steeply on international exchanges in early August, because of the crops standing below estimates all over Europe, and as a result of the wheat export banning measures set in place by Russia and Ukraine, they should not significantly influence the price of bread on the domestic market, say MADR officials. A European Commission spokesperson said recently that Russia’s embargo on grain exports would have almost no impact on the European Union. ’The EU imports less than one million tonnes of grain from Russia. The EU domestic grain production ranges between 280 and 300 million tonnes per year. Therefore, the impact on the European cereals market will be minimal, if not quasi nil,’ spokesman Frédéric Vincent told a press conference. In addition, he stressed, the EU has ’large stocks of grain.’