July 26, 2012

Bulgaria ships 93,000 tonnes wheat to Spain

By the end of the month, Bulgaria will export 93,000 tonnes of wheat to Spain, bringing its wheat shipments to Spain from the 2012 crop to 290,000 tonnes, an industry official said on Wednesday (July 25).

Spain is already thinking ahead to how much grain it will need to import after a wheat harvest that is likely to come in below expectations. Some traders now believe the harvest will be around four million tonnes, down from close to seven million last year.

Two ships were loading at the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna to carry 73,000 tonnes of wheat to Spain, while another one waited to start loading, the official familiar with grain export data told Reuters.

"The shipments should be off to Spain by the end of the month," the official said.

Black Sea grain producer Bulgaria has exported 274,000 tonnes of wheat from the new crop so far, with 197,000 tonnes to Spain. Smaller exports went to Portugal and Romania.

Rainfall in May helped wheat fields partially recover from extensive drought but this year's wheat crop in Bulgaria will still come about 10% below last year's at about four million tonnes, farmers and farm ministry officials said.

Despite the lower crop, wheat exports can reach up to around two million tonnes, down from last year's 2.3 million tonnes, they estimate.