Romania’s domestic consumption of wheat, corn, sunflower and barley will be covered by the cereal yields of this year, although harvest of certain crops has not yet been completed, and in 2025 agriculture in Romania will be a highly-performing one, according to Romania’s Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu.
„As far as wheat is concerned, there is a glut of over one million tonnes from 2023, and as far as sunflower goes, there a degree of self-sufficiency of 100%. Basically, our consumption is somewhere around 800,000 tonnes and there are over 1.3 million tonnes harvested. There are currently 3.5 million tonnes of corn harvested, but only half of the agricultural area under corn has been harvested. Of course, we are waiting for very large yields in the area under irrigation in Romania, but also in the western part and in Transylvania, where they harvest later. We have no problems with of self-sufficiency in products and we are talking about corn, wheat, sunflower, barley, where there is an excess as against 2023,” Barbu told a news conference.
He added that in 2025 agriculture in Romania will be a highly-performing one, given the data received from certain international environmental agencies that have announced weather forecasts in the coming period.
„I think that in 2025 agriculture in Romania will be highly-performing and yields will be very high. Of course, I also have concrete data from certain agencies and from the Environment Agency in London. There will soon be rainfall in certain areas of the country and the soil water deficit has been regulated. A rather harsh winter is forecast, with snowfall, which means that the water deficit in the soil will be reduced. We will continue in the area of the irrigation system and we will not stop the free water and we will not close the irrigation equipment before freezing weather sets in. We still want farmers to be protected. They will all have the support that we have given this year and it has been consistent support. There were direct payments of grants, apart from those from the European Commission, of EUR 1.91 billion, in other years the support was somewhere around EUR 200-300-400 million. Romanian farmers deserve to benefit from the full support of the Romanian government and the Ministry of Agriculture and the work done by me as minister, and also by my colleagues with whom I have teamed up for a year in office,” said Barbu.
According to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), crop production in Romania increased in 2023 by 2.1%, up to RON 66.26 billion in comparable prices, while animal production decreased by 2.5% to RON 40.65 billion.
AGERPRES
