September 19, 2011

Romania's wheat export to surpass four million tonnes

This year's record wheat crops will allow Romanian wheat export to exceed four million tonnes, thus, permitting it to be a 'granary' again, according to Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara on Friday (Sep 16).

He said that this year's wheat crops exceed eight million tonnes and there are six to seven counties, including the southern county of Dambovita, where the wheat is 100% suitable for bread making, while the wheat in the remaining counties is 80% suitable for the same end.

"The recorded crops are exceeding 7.2 million tonnes. In reality, given a certain experience and the fact that households do not report their yields, I believe the wheat output in Romania at this moment is over eight million tonnes. This means there are more than four million tonnes of wheat that could be bound for export. This is, I believe, for the first time in Romania's history we can talk of a granary. This marks Romania's returning after 2010 to the club of the world's wheat exporters, where it should stay. It would be a big and grave mistake for Romania to fall out of this club, as it happened after 1996. Romania cannot produce only for itself because this means it would waste its agriculture and return to a province of anti-economy,' said Tabara.