Even if the provisory statistics issued by the Agriculture Ministry in 2014 indicate the crop increased as compared to 2013, the rental prices for the farmland are about the same as in the previous years. For an average production of wheat of 3.65 tones per hectare, the landlord will receive between 500 and 900 kilos of wheat per hectare, depending on the region, as a Capital survey among the farmers’ associations points to.
The rental price goes as far as a tone per hectare
Dimitrie Musca, an Arad farmer and General Manager of the Curtici Agro-industrial Plant Court, told us his company had an average crop of 6.5 tones of wheat per hectare and of 4.2 tones of rapeseed per hectare. “As for the rental price of the land, it is 750 kilos per hectare. The harvest is worse than in 2013”, Musca said.
Ion Manaila, President of the ASOMAR Marketing and Agrarian Consultancy from Teleorman County, revealed that in his region the average wheat crop reached 3.5 tones per hectare, while the rental price for croplands is about 800 kilos per hectare. “This year, the wheat and barley crops were 20% lower than in 2013, but we expect a 20% higher crop for corn”, he said.
A smaller harvest than in 2013 was also reported in Gorj County. “The average crop was three tones of wheat per hectare, that’s why the rental price paid to the landlords is 500 kilos per hectare”, said Gheorghe Petcu, President of the Gorj Farmers Association.
The things went a little bit better in Constanta, where the harvest increased as compared to the previous year. The local farmers gathered an average of 4.2 tones of wheat per hectare and about 6.3 tones of barley per hectare. The landlords are supposed to receive between 800 and 1,000 kilos per hectare, as Aron Emanoil, President of the Private Grains and Oilseeds Producers Association, told us. As for the maize, Emanoil expects a crop between six and seven tones per hectare.
“In Calarasi County the wheat crop reached about four tones per hectare and the maize crop about 6.5 tones per hectare so far”, revealed Liviu Adam, Executive Manager within the local Grains and Non-food Crops Farmers Association. Around the county, the average rental price for croplands is 800 kilos per hectare.
The Cluj County landlords are going to receive between 600 and 800 kilos of wheat per hectare. “The heavy rains didn’t impact our county’s crops. We actually had the best harvest for the past seven years – four tones of wheat per hectare. We are now expecting between six and 7.7 toners of maize per hectare”, the President of the Cluj Farmers’ Association, Iosif Balla, said.
Low quality grains
The provisory data gathered by the Agriculture Ministry revealed that in 2014 Romanian farmers harvested over 7.37 million tones of wheat and rye from a two million-hectare area. The 2014 wheat crop is bigger than the one computed for 2013 (7.34 million tones). The average crop was 3.65 tones per hectare, higher as compared with the 3.55 tones per hectare from 2013.
But even if the quantity is bigger than in the previous year, the farmers are not satisfied with the grains’ quality. Which led to a smaller price offered by the traders. “Without the impact of the adverse climatic factors, the total crop would have been among the biggest in the past years. The heavy rains diminished wheat’s quality. They affected almost the entire country, excepting some areas where there was a drought”, Laurentiu Baciu, President of the Romanian League of Farmers’ Associations (LAPAR), explained.
While the farmers hope to cover their losses with the help of the maize crops and estimate a harvest 10-20% bigger than in 2013, the LAPAR leader daunts them by saying the results after the harvest might be not so pleasant.
ROMANIA IN FIGURES
In 2013, the agricultural land area of Romania was of 14.6 million hectares, of which 9.3 million hectares were arable area, according to the Romanian Agriculture Ministry and to the National Statistics Institute. 900,000 hectares were owned by foreign investors, while 500,000 hectares were for sale, according to DTZ Echinox.
