Exporters’ receipts amounted to EUR244.8 million, down 4% from last July, but still the second highest level of receipts in the past ten years after the all-time high reached in 2013.
Agricultural raw material exporters, largely multinationals such as Cargill, Glencore, Nidera or Ameropa, have in the past two seasons focused on exports in the first months after harvest when prices were falling and integrated volumes were high enough for the Romanian commodities to compete with those of Ukraine or Russia.
Romanian farming sector has 4.5 million tons of wheat, 1.1 million tons of barley and 0.5 million tons of rape available for exports during July 2014/June 2015 season.
On traders’ appetite for early season exports, half of available barley volumes, a quarter of the surplus on the rapeseed market and 13% of the wheat surplus on the Romanian market have already left for final destinations.
Traders’ policy is largely in sync with Romanian farmers’ approach, considering many of the latter sell the grain and oleaginous seeds right after harvest as they are pressed by bill maturities and also as they lack warehousing spaces.
The market imbalance is visible in the position Romania held in July in terms of wheat, barley and rape exports among European markets. The local economy was in July the second largest exporter of these products though it is not even among the top three European economies by output of any of the three agricultural commodities.
Grain and oil seed exporters sent the Romanian freight to already traditional destinations such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Egypt, but also to less traditional harbors such as Djibouti, Nigeria, Ethiopia or Kuwait. Saudi Arabian importers were in July the most prolific clients for Romanian barley, placing orders that totaled 300,000 tons worth EUR50 million.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)