Wheat production is enough to cover domestic demand, minister

Wheat production this year is around 500,000 tonnes, 60% of which is food grade, and this is enough to cover the domestic demand of 350,000 tonnes of food-grade wheat, 150 tonnes of feed-grade wheat, and 60,000 tonnes for sowing, Agriculture Minister Vasile Bumacov told a meeting of the Press Club in Chisinau. Minister Bumacov described the quality of this year's wheat as “exceptional”, which apparently came at the expense of quantity. “Wheat quality increases when springs are rainier and summers are drier. So the quality is due to the drought. But it's also because of the drought that we didn't get the 700,000 tonnes we expected”, said Bumacov, adding that the average yield per hectare was under one tonne in the south, slightly over one tonne in the center, and nearly three tonnes in the north. The Minister further assured that the harvested wheat would be enough, “especially since the population hold 50,000 tonnes of wheat in their reserves and a further 50 tonnes are kept in the State Reserve”. According to the Minister, the situation is more complicated on the external markets, because Russia, Ukraine and even the United States are experiencing a drought they never had in the last 50 years, which means that there will be a shortage of 22 million tonnes worldwide. The risk is that this deficit would prompt Moldovans to export. In this context, Minister Bumacov called on farms, mills and bakeries to refrain from exporting wheat and rather stock it until next year. Besides wheat, Moldova also harvested this year 120,000 tonnes of barley and 13,000 tonnes of peas.