Farmers Union forecasts wheat price at 3 – 3.5 lei/kg

The Union of Agricultural Producers Associations Uniagroprotect (UAP) forecasts the wheat price in 2008 will be 3-3.5 lei/kg. At the same time, the rape price will be 5 – 5.5 lei/kg. UAP deputy president Alexandru Slusari has told Info-Prim Neo the estimations have been made taking into account the expectations of a good harvest, but also the farmers' expenses incurred following the latest fuel price rise. Although the forecasts for sunflower and corn cannot be made exactly as yet, taking into account there are still 2 months left till the harvest is ripe, Alexandru Slusari says an estimative price for sunflower could stand at 5-6 lei/kg, and 3.5-4 lei/kg for corn. According to him, the state has an important role to play in establishing efficient levers to coordinate the price fluctuations in 2008, as well as in establishing the moves to stimulate the wheat export. Alexandru Slusari says, this, year, there should not be any problems in exporting the wheat, as it happened last year because of the drought. “Restricting the export this year would not be reasonable,” he said. The UAP deputy president thinks the state should encourage the Competition Protecting Agency to prevent artificially decreasing of prices of procuring agricultural produce, as some wholesalers used to. “These companies make cartel arrangements and thus decrease the prices artificially. Taking into account the difficult situation of last year, such scenarios are excluded,” Slusari underlined. He also wants that the market price of the wheat to be bought by the state for its should not be less than the forecast price. Last year, the Government procured wheat for its reserve at 3.0-3.2 lei/kg, depending on the gluten percentage. Generally, the prices on the Moldovan market varied between 3 and 4 lei/kg, depending on quality. On the external markets, the prices varied between 230-270 USD/tonne.