Agro Chirnogi moves to more profitable crops

Calarasi-based Agro Chirnogi, which farms one of the largest areas of agricultural land in Romania, posted turnover for its Chirnogi unit worth 10 million euros (33.5 million RON) in the first nine months of this year, which is a comparable level to the entire of last year’s turnover. The company estimates profit will reach 200,000 euros (700,000 RON) and turnover will stand at 124.9 million euros (50 million RON), an increase of almost 50% on last year. “This year was our worst ever. The drought forced us to modify the crop structure, which is why we reduced the amount of land allocated for soy crops, which accounted for 35% of the total crops last year, cultivating maize instead, because production costs for maize are lower and the financial results better,” stated Gheorghe Ghioca, general manager of Agro Chirnogi. As far as output is concerned, the company harvested 5,700 kilos of wheat/hectare, 3,000 kilos of rape/hectare, 8,000 kilos of maize/hectare and 3,500 kilos of soy/hectare. Out of the 11,000 hectares of land owned by Agro Chirnogi, 40% were used for crops such as wheat, barley and two-row barley, 15% for rape, 35% for maize and 10% for soy.