Corn harvests have been abundant this year, thrice as plentiful as last year, in fact. But because of high moisture levels, part of the crop may be lost. Producers have to wait in long queues at drying facilities that can barely cope with the demand.

IPN spoke to Igor Grigoriev, president of Agrocereale, Moldova’s largest association of grain exporters. Grigoriev says that ideally corn should be harvested when humidity levels are no higher than 13%. “In previous years, producers used to harvest corn in December, January or even February, when humidity levels were already falling. The problem really is with these producers who decided to harvest corn at this high humidity of 17-19%, and today they have nowhere to take their crop for processing. Before corn, other grains were harvested in large amounts, so today all the warehouses, all the elevators are loaded to the gills”, explained Igor Grigoriev.

Although he could not tell exactly how many grain dryers there are in Moldova, he said they are insufficient in number. “The few grain dryers that still exist in the country burn gas, most of them, and the costs were exorbitant even with the old gas rates.”

Grigoriev estimates this year’s corn harvest to exceed two million tonnes and more than half of that quantity will be exported to Europe, Asia and Africa. Corn prices on international markets are quite advantageous. So despite high drying costs, it’s unlikely Moldovan corn producers will come out on the wrong side financially, thinks Grigoriev.

Vasile Mârzenco, executive director of the National Farmers Federation, thinks the problem has appeared because producers are not used to act fast enough in critical situations. “Capacities in Moldova when it comes to grain drying are insufficient. Corn producers closer to the Ukrainian border should consider cooperating with processers from that country, and those closer to the Romanian border should seek help there. Then, they should talk with these big livestock companies, here as well as in Romania, and deliver the corn directly from the field to them. As long as our producers are not active members of trade associations, the situation will remain unchanged. We should think at least two months ahead, not when harvest day comes and we realize the corn is not good for harvesting because it’s too humid”, Mârzenco told IPN.