September 26, 2012

Serbia's 2012 corn output down 46% to 3.5 million tonnes, while soy anticipated fall of 42.3% to 254,310 tonnes.

The statistics office said in a statement last week that the anticipated fall of 38% (four million tonnes) will have a considerable negative impact on Serbia's foreign trade activities since corn output is the country's biggest agriculture export item. Furthermore, earlier this month local fodder producers urged the government to introduce ban on corn exports, warning the harvest will be even lower than already expected because of the summer drought.

The head of the fodder producers association at Serbia's Chamber of Commerce, Dragoslav Milisavljevic, has said this year's corn crop will be somewhat below three million tonnes, according to field results. In the beginning of September, the Serbian government already introduced temporary limitations on the exports of soy, sunflower and sugar beet in order to prevent shortages after the extensive drought.

According to the latest forecasts of the statistics office, the corn yield per hectare is seen at 2.745 tonnes this year, significantly below the August projection (3.118 tonnes) and 2011's yield of 5.457 tonnes/hectare. The office has also worsened its previous projections for the output of other late crops. The soy crop is anticipated to fall as much as 42.3% to 254,310 tonnes versus an earlier announced 13.6% decline to some 457,000 tonnes in 2012.