For the third month in a row, the European Commission is revising its forecast downwards for Romania's winter crops, including the grain production, while increasing at the same time its forecast for the country's sunflower crop.

Specifically, Romanian farmers could get an average of only 4.2 tonnes of wheat per hectare this year, 20% less than last year and 5.7% below the average of the last five years.

According to the new forecasts, quoted by Economica.net, this year's wheat production could be only about 9.3 mln tonnes (from over ten mln tonnes projected in May), given that the cultivated area is about 2.1 mln hectares.

In 2021, Romania's wheat production was 10.4 mln tonnes, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

On the upside, the sunflower yield could be 2.69 tonnes per hectare, 5.9% over the last year and 3.2% over the average of the last five years.

There was an upwards revision from the forecast in May when EC's experts estimated an average yield of 2.66 tonnes per hectare.

(Photo: Dmytro Shestakov/ Dreamstime)

andrei@romania-insider.com