Egypt, South Korea, Libya, Tunisia and Syria have become the five most important markets for Romanian wheat, with orders of 3.1 million tons, after increasing 14 times from four seasons ago, when they were at the bottom of the ranking and were of marginal importance for grain traders present in Romania.
The top five markets of Romanian wheat cover 76% of total exports operated during the current 2013-2014 season, meaning the prices obtained by Romanian farmers from multinational traders are built depending on quotations received at auctions organized in Cairo or Seoul.
“The change in export destinations is linked to quality. Romania is now viewed as an exporter of milling wheat, and not wheat fodder as in the past. There are now many farmers producing high-quality commodities irrespective of weather conditions,” explains Victor Beznea, general manager of Prutul Agri Trade.
The concentration of deliveries to the markets of the Middle East, Southeastern Asia and northern Africa has gained steam in the past two seasons and will continue in the next commercial campaign.
Egypt is the destination that has seen deliveries rise almost 600 times in the past four seasons and reach 1.7 million tons at present, of which 91% are covered by orders coming from Cairo’s GASC.
The economies of southeastern Asia have been among the most constant clients for Romanian wheat in the past four seasons, with orders ranging between 700,000 and 800,000 tons.
South Korea has increased its orders from Romania almost four times, while Japan “tested” for the first time 40,000 tons of wheat produced in Romania.
Romania expects a wheat crop put at between 7.6 and 8.3 million tons in the next weeks, the fifth largest in the EU.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)