Romania's cereal crop expected to edge down by only 5% from last year's record

Romania could produce 1.4 mln tonnes of cereals (wheat, corn, barley) less this year, compared to last year, according to the latest projections of the European Commission summarised by Economica.net.

Romania's wheat, corn and barley production could be around 25.8 mln tonnes this year, down 5.1% from last year, a decrease of 1.4 mln tonnes, according to calculations based on data from the Ministry of Agriculture and the latest forecast of the European Commission.

In contrast, total sunflower and rapeseed production will increase by 7.8% to about 4.5 mln tonnes amid better yields. The quantity is 330,000 tonnes higher than in 2021.

As regards the sunflower crop, the European Commission experts estimate that farmers will get an average yield of 2.66 tonnes per hectare, 10% more than last year, the highest in the EU and 3.3% above the five-year average.

However, the substantial deficit of rains at the beginning of spring, as well as below-average temperatures, negatively affected the winter crops - which led the European Commission specialists to revise their latest forecast for the yield of wheat, barley and rapeseed crops.

Thus, according to their estimates, the yields for wheat will be, on average, 4.56 tonnes per hectare, 14% below the level of the previous year; for barley, the yields will be 15% -22% lower, and for corn, the decline will be only 0.2% compared to the previous year's average.

(Photo: Ginasanders | Dreamstime.com)