Harvest mice destroyed about 6% of Romania’s wheat crop this year, causing a EUR 40 million damage, according to the Federation of Agriculture Producers.

This happened because the state forbid the use of some pest control products which were not approved by the EU. So rodents ate about 6 to 7% of the crop directly on the field, according to Mediafax newswire.

“This year the number of mice exploded. It was unbelievable, we haven’t seen such attacks so far,” said Viorel Matei, the president of the Federation. Mice ended up eating and destroying some 400,000 tonnes of wheat in 2014, a record year in terms of wheat crop in the last nine years – 7.3 million tonnes.

Matei argues the numbers put forward by authorities are incorrect, as they made the statements before the heavy rains. He says the real wheat production in Romania was of 6.8 million tonnes, discounted to some 6.4 million tonnes after the mice attacks.

editor@romania-insider.com