Miller Magazine Issue 107 / November 2018

89 MILLER / NOVEMBER 2018 ARTICLE European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Thanks to its location and relatively large size among European countries, Romania has become a grain expor- ter competing with its neighbours on the Black Sea. Cons- tanta port is the main gate for agricultural transportation, the storage capacity in the port expanding continuously. A RECORD CEREALS HARVEST IN 2017 Romania registered in 2017 a record harvest of cereals of 27.1 million tonnes, up 25 percent compared to 2016, wheat production soaring to all time high of over 10 mil- lion tonnes, according to a report of Romanian National Institute of Statistics (INS). According to the report, the harvested production of wheat rose by 19 percent last year to 10.03 million t (from 8.4 million t in 2016), maize increased by 33 percent to 14.3 million t, while barley grew by 5 percent to 1.9 million tons. Last year, Romania was the fifth largest wheat produ- cer among the 28 EU member states, with 6.6 percent of total EU wheat production, the second largest maize producer (22 percent) and the largest sunflower produ- cer (28.1 percent). But Romania’s wheat exports have dropped in the first nine months of 2018 by 20 percent year-on-year, from 6 million tons to 4.8 million tons, due to lower output and the exit from markets such as Morocco and Turkey. Romania usually exports its wheat to the Middle East, but is likely to prefer European clients in 2018, due to higher prices offered. STRATEGIC GRAIN PORT: CONSTANTA According to USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s (FAS) last Romania report, the country’s annual grain area planted covers between 5.2 and 5.4 million hectares (HA), depending on the oilseed area fluctuation. Whe- at and corn account for about 85 percent of the total grain area. Romanian grain production is likely to fall in 2018/19 season by eight percent, based on the current crop status or initial harvest reports. Grain exports are projected to fall by 11 percent in 2018/19 year-on-year. As a net grain exporter, Romania is heavily reliant on its transportation infrastructure to ship grain to the Bla- ck Sea. The Port of Constanta is the main trading hub for agricultural commodities from not only Romania, but also neighboring Bulgaria, Hungary, and Serbia. Grain storage capacity in Constanta is expanding, with current capacity estimated at 1– 1.5 million metric tons (MMT). Romanian wheat exports fell by 20 percent ye- ar-on-year during the first nine months of MY 2017/18, mainly due to lower stocks in the region, chiefly Hungary and Serbia. Wheat exports reached 4.8 MMT versus 6.0 MMT during the first nine months of the MY. Unlike previous year when about 80 percent of wheat exports were shipped outside of the European Union, this year