Romania to have the biggest decrease of grain production of the largest European growers

Total cereal production in the European Union will decline in the 2015-2016 agricultural year by 6.9 per cent over the previous year, to 306.5 million tonnes, due to a lower crop area, but also due to the problems of the farmers that planted corn, rye and oats, according to the latest forecasts conducted by the European Commission and quoted by Economica.net

2016-02-07 16:58:50 - From the Print Edition

Among major growers, the most affected is Romania, for which the EU forecast in January 2016 was a decrease by 25.1 per cent to 16.8 million tonnes. Romania is followed by Hungary, with a drop in production of 14.6 per cent over the 2014-2015 agricultural year, Poland is forecast a drop of 12.7 per cent and Italy, a decrease by 9.1 per cent. Taking into consideration the average of the last five years, EU cereal production is estimated to increase by five per cent, while for Romania the decrease compared to this average is up to ten per cent.
As in the rest of the EU, corn was the most affected crop by the drought from this summer, so that production decreased by 14 per cent compared to the average of the past five years. Also, compared with the previous agricultural year, the decrease was 27.9 per cent to 66.8 million tonnes in the EU. Romania, for example, will produce around 7.1 million tonnes of corn, according to EU estimates, compared to 11.9 million tonnes in 2014 (minus 40.3 per cent), as the data of the National Statistics Institute (INS) shows, quoted by Economica.net.
Regarding wheat production, it will be above the previous agricultural year, both in the EU and in Romania. European Commission specialists count on a total production of (soft) wheat of 149.5 million tonnes, up 0.5 per cent over the 2014-2015 agricultural year and of durum wheat of eight million tonnes, up by 11.8 per cent more than the previous year. Compared to the average of the past five years, European farmers will produce 14 per cent more, while Romanian farmers could put into barns 7.5 million tonnes of wheat, about the same as last year, according to the same source. Regarding barley, the European Commission forecasts a production of 61 million tonnes, up nine per cent over the average of the past five years and 1.3 per cent over last year′s production. For Romania, the estimated production reaches 1.6 million tonnes against 1.7 million tonnes last year. Compared to the average of the last five years, Romania's production is increasing, wrote the newswire.