Miller Magazine Issue 107 / November 2018

ROMANIA more 30 percent of Romania’s wheat was bound for ot- her EU members. The notable buyer was Spain, which bought nearly 1.0 MMT, a 250-percent increase over the previous marketing year. Egypt, a traditional market for the Romanian wheat, ranked the first among the non-EU destinations with 814,000 MT, a 17-percent reduction from last season. The drop in wheat exports to Egypt may be attributed to competition from Russia and Ukraine. Jordan imported 656,000 MT. Libya and Sudan were also viable markets. Overall, FAS Bucharest estimates that the total wheat exports will be closed to 6.1 MMT, about a 10-percent decline year-on-year. DECREASE IN CORN PRODUCTION The 2018/19 season corn area declined from last year, mostly due to corn farmers losing money during the pre- vious year’ drought. As neonicotinoid application rema- ins prohibited in the EU, Romanian farmers appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture to approve a new derogation for corn and sunflower. Following the notification to EU, the Ministry of Agriculture granted the derogation in Ja- nuary 2018, earlier than previous years. Corn yields are expected to be six percent lower than last year due to the late planting and poor spring weat- her. This forecast is based on the assumption that weat- her conditions will not negatively affect pollination. Total corn output is forecast to reach 10.7 MMT, a ten-per- cent decline from the previous exceptional year. Regar- ding utilization, feed consumption is expected to keep rising, encouraged by good prospects for swine, sheep, and cattle production. Corn exports increased by almost 40 percent during the first half of the MY 2017/18, following last year’s bumper crop. Other EU members accounted for 80 per- cent of Romanian corn exports, significantly more than usual. Exports to Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece al- most tripled during the first six months of the MY, mostly driven by unfavorable weather conditions in those mar- kets. Turkey, Lebanon, and New Zealand are the most notable non-EU markets for Romanian corn. The barley area fell by approximately 10 percent in MY 2018/19 in response to reduced profitability. USDA’s barley production estimate is trimmed to 1.55 million MT, a 14-percent decrease from last year. Although ave- rage yields are similar to last year, the area is reduced. Barley is mainly an export crop—generally less than a quarter of production is used domestically.