Businessman Adrian Porumboiu, the owner of the Racova Agro Pan Grup based in Vaslui stated that after this year's harvest he only got 50,000 tonnes of wheat, half of what he expected to get were it not for the drought.
"After having got 110,000 tonnes of wheat last year I hoped I could get a 120,000 tonne-crop this year. We only had a 50,000-tonne crop due to the drought, which means approximately 40% of last year's yield," Adrian Porumboiu stated.
The group Adrian Porumboiu runs farms 43,000 hectares of land, 37,000 hectares of which were planted with wheat (25,000 hectares) and rape (12,000 hectares). The areas cultivated with wheat are in Iasi, Galati and Neamt counties.
Taking into account that one tonne of wheat costs more than 200 euros at the moment, the halving of the crop compared with 2006 could generate approximately 12 million euros in losses for the farming business of the Racova group.
The businessman stated he would resort to imports of raw material this year to be able to build the stocks necessary for production.
"We will build some of the stocks from our own yield but we will also import. We have already signed contracts with companies in Hungary, France and Germany and intend to import approximately 30,000 tonnes of wheat by the end of the year," he added.
According to Adrian Porumboiu, the price of wheat will continue to go up by the end of the year, although one tonne of wheat currently costs more than 200 euros. On the Budapest exchange it went up from 130 euros/tonne to the current 210 euros/tonne in one month and continues to increase, says Viorel Marin, chairman of the National Association of the Milling and Bakery Industries in Romania (ANAMOB).
"The price per tonne of wheat could reach approximately 240 euros at the end of the year," the businessman said.
The value of the imports by the businessman could reach 6 to 7.2 million euros. The wheat imports will exceed one million tonnes this year, as a result of the poor harvest due to the drought, players in the industry say.
The Racova Agro Pan Grup comprises Racova Vaslui (which is involved in tourism), Comcereal Vaslui, R-Agro, Asociatia Agricola Munteni, Agrocomplex Barlad (grain grower), Mopan Suceava (milling and bakery), Ulerom Vaslui (maker of vegetable oil), Ilvas Vaslui (milk processing), Comprest Vaslui (construction) and Comguard Vaslui (security services). Out of these businesses, only the farming operations generate financial results of over 40 million euros a year.
The wheat crop this year is estimated at 3.5 million tonnes, compared with 5.2 million tonnes last year.
Viorel Marin says Romania has a grain storage capacity of approximately 7 or 8 million tonnes, enough to hold the entire domestic yield and this year's imports.
Businessman Adrian Porumboiu is not the only farmer in the industry that decided to import wheat this year. Mihai Anghel, general manger of Comcereal Dolj, another major producer in the agricultural industry will import wheat from Hungary.
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