“We expect this year’s corn harvest will exceed production in 2011,” said Mihai Anghel, owner of group Cerealcom Dolj, whose four companies register aggregate sales of EUR82 million.
Similar estimations were made a week ago by Ioan Niculae, owner of InterAgro, and by Lebanese investor Jihad El Khalil.
EU statistics for June showed Romania’s average corn production at 3.8 tons/hectare, which translates into a total production of 10.5 million tons. Coceral, an organization of European grain traders and processors, estimated Romania’s 2013 corn harvest at 9.1 million tons.
Considering current corn prices, of EUR220/ton, a 12-million ton harvest would bring Romania EUR2.6 billion, but corn prices are expected to fall though yearend.
With a corn harvest of at least 8.5 million tons, Romania will become Europe’s second largest corn producer after France, which is expected to produce over 16 million tons of corn.
Romania’s agricultural production was severely impacted by drought last year.