AgriMin: Romania will keep its first place in EU this year too, in corn and sunflower

Romania will keep its first place in the European Union this year too, in corn and sunflower, in the context in which the cultivated surfaces were higher than in 2018, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Petre Daea. 

In 2019, the area cultivated with corn covered 2.65 million hectares and the one cultivated with sunflower covered 1.16 million hectares, which is more than last year, when the areas cultivated with corn covered 2.41 million hectares and the one cultivated with sunflower covered 1.01 million hectares. 

The areas cultivated with corn and sunflower were extended due to the loss of the areas cultivated with rape because of the draught, with the respective areas being later cultivated with either sunflower or corn, explained Petre Daea. 

In this context, the Minister of Agriculture announced that this year too, Romania will keep its first place in EU in corn and sunflower productions. 

"I can tell you that in what the corn and sunflowers crops are concerned, we think that we will keep our first place in the European Union this year too, especially that there were larger areas cultivated, which will also show in the total production," underscored Daea. 

Asked about last year's corn crops, of over 18 million tonnes, which caused the European Commission (EU) to ask Romania to revise its figures, the Minister was prompt to respond: "We haven't revised anything." 

"In this case, someone from Romania leaked some information, I won't given the exact name, but I have sent a letter in which I explained why those figures and what were those calculations based on. We haven't revised anything." 

According to him, Romania entered the EU in 2007, "a tough year," with 3 million tonnes of wheat recorded, while next year, in 2008, there were recorded 7.1 million tonnes, and in the past three years there were recorded more than 10 million tonnes," which proves a constancy of production, which validates, thus, the technological capacity of farmers." 

When asked to estimate the value of the 2019 production, Daea said: "We will see after we harvest, but in any case, it will be close to last year's, for the prices are similar." 

According to the data announced at end-July by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), which are not quite final yet, the value of the 2018 agricultural production increased by 7.2 per cent compared with last year, totalling 86.34 billion lei. 

The plant production and the agricultural services increased by 11.5 and 16.9 per cent, respectively, in 2018, while the animal production dropped by 2.69 per cent. The final data for 2018 will be announced by the INS on October 15 2019.