Fairly good agricultural year & situation of Ukrainian imports into Romania
Romania expects a good wheat harvest this year, higher than last year, according to Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Florin Barbu.
Romania ranked first last year, compared to European Union Member States, in terms of area cultivated with maize and second in terms of maize production, after France. For wheat, it ranked fifth in cultivated area, after France, Germany, Poland and Spain and fourth in production after France, Germany and Poland.
Expectations for this year are optimistic. 'It is a good agricultural year. We have an average of 5,000* kg per hectare for wheat, which means a slightly higher production than last year' Barbu said.
In terms of crops sown in spring, drought has affected maize and sunflower crops. 'The drought has been much more severe during this period and crops sown in the spring have been affected. […] We are trying to find the financial resources to help these farmers. Moreover, we are also waiting for the reports on the vegetable sector, where the extreme phenomena have caused damages. We are talking about the Matca area, the Olt area, the Strejesti area, we are waiting for the evaluations and of course we will support Romanian farmers and vegetable growers', added the head of Agriculture.
Imports from Ukraine
According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Romania had a grain production of 18.84 million tonnes last year, down more than 32% from 2021, when 27.79 million tonnes were reported.
As for wheat production, it was 8.68 million tonnes, down almost 18% from the 10.43 million tonnes obtained in 2021 and an average of 4,004 kg/ha. In maize, the harvest fell to 8.04 million tonnes from the 14.82 million tonnes reported in 2021, which was significantly affected due to drought. Yields were only 3,298 kg/ha in 2022.
After the temporary import ban on Ukrainian cereals and oilseeds into Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania was lifted on September 15, Romania seems to have bilaterally agreed with Ukraine upon a licensing system to allow such imports under certain conditions. The licensing system should be operational in 30 days, until then no imports (just transit) shall be allowed. Both exporters and importers will need to get a licence in their own country. Romanian importers shall be only the final users of these products (farms and processing units).
At the same time, new actions are foreseen to improve solidarity lanes on Romanian territory which would result into doubling the transit capacity for Ukrainian agricultural products. Such measures aim at improving the ship-to-ship transhipment capacity in the Port of Constanta, making the Sulina Canal (Danube’s RO branch to the Black Sea) navigable 24 hours/day, increasing the number of pilots guiding boats on the Sulina Canal.
*low averages are due to the high number of very small farmers. Averages of commercial farmers are substantially higher