Wheat crop to exceed $500m

This year’s wheat crop is estimated at 6.7 million tonnes at the moment, according to data of the Statistics Bureau of the Agriculture Ministry.

This output could be worth more than $500 million, in the event the exchange in Chicago sets a $100 price per tonne.

The Agriculture Ministry officials have repeatedly said obtaining such an output could allow Romania to export a specific amount of wheat.

“We may (export wheat- that is), but so far we’ve harvested only 57% of the cultivated land, therefore we may not talk about it until we harvest the entire wheat crop,” Ovidiu Natea, state secretary within the Agriculture Ministry, told Ziarul Financiar.

The actual wheat crop so far amounts to 4.3 million tonnes, with over 3,000 kg/ha in yield. The yield for the entire crop estimated for this year is supposed to reach more than 2,500 kg/ha.

“I do not think we will actually obtain such an output to allow us to export wheat. We estimate an average output of 2,200 kg/ha, but announcing a higher amount leads to lower market prices,” Florea Popescu, wheat seed producer, said.

The output registered in 2000 reached 4.4 million tonnes, following the drought last year, deemed as the droughtiest in 50 years. Former PM Mugur Isarescu was once saying a bad agricultural year costs Romania one billion dollars.