The wheat harvest this year is lower than last year, but the country’s food security is ensured, said Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolea. According to him, the drought affected a part of the wheat, but the harvested wheat enables to satisfy internal demand. The farmers keep the wheat in storehouses as the export price is now very low, IPN reports.
The minister said the harvesting of wheat continues in northern Moldova and is to be completed in a week, but forecasts show the total wheat crop this year will be about 800,000 tonnes, as opposed to 1.5 million tonnes last year. The harvest will be 1.5 tonnes to 4.5-5 tonnes per ha.
“The internal consumption for persons is 330,000 tonnes of wheat and another 150,000 tonnes are intended for animals. The wheat crop this year was estimated at about 700,000-800,000 tonnes. It is much less than last year, but in 2020 the Republic of Moldova reported a crop of 565,000 tonnes of wheat. This year’s crop is enough for internal consumption,” Vladimir Bolea stated in the talk show “Shadow Cabinet” on JurnalTV channel.
According to the minister, wheat exports were stopped almost fully as the price is not advantageous. The farmers keep the wheat in storehouses and do not hurry to export it at low prices, waiting for better times. The storage capacity of elevators in Moldova is over 1 million tonnes.
“Exports are very small. The prices started to decline two weeks ago because there is plenty of wheat during the harvesting period. The largest part of the farmers still pay the debts accumulated in spring. The second factor is that the crop is large in Canada, the U.S., Russia and the prices declined therefore. The third objective reason is that Ukraine started to export and exports also to Romania. The prices are not high. Hence, the farmers who are able to keep the wheat will yet keep it until the prices grow,” said Vladimir Bolea.
According to him, this year’s drought seriously compromised the corn harvest. However, Moldova annually produces 280% of the necessary quantity of corn and 700,000 tonnes of corn are yet in storehouses.
