“Corn has been 50% harvested, some of it is already in silos. The volume is close to last year’s,” says Robert Arsene, head of Agricover, one of the largest grain traders on the local market.
The total value of the corn production affects the impact agriculture has on the country’s economy, since it has accounted for 10% on average in the total agricultural production in the past decade.
Corn is a strategic crop for farmers with small plots of land who use the cobs in livestock farms and rely on it for revenue during winter, as well as for commercial farms, because it can be converted into cash at any time during the year to meet demand from livestock farms, food industry and exporters.
“The (financial i.e.) yield was the severely affected but you cannot stop growing corn because the corn has its place and role in the crop rotation system,” says Stefan Poienaru of Agrofarm Holding, one of the ten leading farmers of the country.
The lack of instruments to help offset the risk and overexposure on the corn market due to the cultivation thereof on the largest amount of land in the entire EU have left Romania’s agriculture defenseless in the face of international situation.
The entire feed grain market, which includes feed wheat and corn declined after abundant rainfall drove the European wheat harvest to 151 million tons, the highest level in five years.
The most important factor when it comes to influence on corn prices is the United States harvest, which usually accounts for 40% of the total world harvest. The US harvest dictates the pace of the entire market because it is almost five times higher than that of Brazil and of the European Union.
US farmers are now getting ready to harvest their biggest crop ever.
Romania is second leading corn producer in the EU after France for the fifth time in the past decade.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)