Schuldt, Cargill: No Major Changes Expected In Romania's Farming Output

05.11.2011 ZF English

Martin Schuldt, general manager of Cargill Agricultura, one of the biggest players in grain trade, expects this year's farming output to be similar to last year's, so Cargill is not expanding its storage facilities along the Danube.

He says it is however too early to make precise predictions about this year's crop, but specifies Romanian farmers are suffering because yields per hectare are lower than in Bulgaria and Hungary.

"Romania will probably have a similar level of agricultural output this year as last year," said Schuldt after the Agribusiness Forum 2011 conference.

The opinion of the Cargill manager is different from that of Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara, who has repeatedly said in the last few months that he expects this year's domestic agricultural output to increase, relying on the fact that local farmers will have the incentives to grow more crops considering their prices on international markets.

Last year, Romanian farmers harvested 5.7 million tons of wheat, over 9 million tons of corn and 1.3 million tons of sunflower seeds. Last year's wheat output was 10% higher than in 2009, while corn output went up by 15% and sunflower output by around 25% at a time when international prices were 30% to 40% lower than at present.