Romania boasts greatest maize, sunflower crops in EU

Romania has harvested this year more than 30 million tonnes of grain compared to 27 million tonnes last year, the maize and sunflower crops ranking as the largest in the European Union, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Petre Daea announced on December 3. This year's cereal production exceeded 30 million tonnes and the 3.35 million tonnes sunflower crop was the largest in the country’s history and the largest among the EU states as well. The maize crop harvested to date (there is 0.5% of the cultivated areas still to be harvested) exceeded 18 million tonnes and was the largest in EU as well, Daea added. The surface sown this year with maize was 2.4 million hectares and the area cultivated with sunflower was 1.01 million hectares. As regards the winter crops, the wheat exceeded 10.2 million tonnes, 2.3% more than last year when the output stood at 10 million tonnes. Farmers’ performance is particularly outstanding as it occurred despite adverse natural conditions. Data published on November 16 by Eurostat showed that Romania boasted the eighth-largest agricultural output (in value terms) among the EU countries in 2017. The EU's agricultural production amounted to EUR 432.6 billion in 2017, 6.2% higher than in 2016. In Romania, the value of total agricultural production increased last year by 13.2%, mainly due to an increase of 17.9% in the value of agricultural crops, of 8.8% in the value of animal production and 5.1% of the value of agricultural services. Romania surpasses France as biggest corn producer in Europe editor@romania-insider.com