A prolonged summer drought in Romania has affected a massive 2.5 million hectares, 40% of the wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower crop, according to Ionel Arion, the president of the National Pro Agro Federation.
Losses will run to 1.5-.8 billion euros, he said, higher than the agriculture ministry estimates.
“We, the professional organizations, estimate that 2.5 million hectares have been compromised, and the compensations of the Ministry of Agriculture, of 500-600 million euros, do not even cover the costs,” he said.
This year is the fourth year of drought in the last five years (2021 was an exception), with insolvencies threatening the agricultural sector and food prices expected to rise.
Romania will have to increase imports to cover the deficit, he added.
The drought hit the corn and sunflower crops the hardest, but it also affected the wheat and rapeseed. Large parts of southern,eastern and southwestern Romania were under orange and red heatwave alerts in the past two months,
Almost all of the corn and soy-flower crops sown in the spring of 2024 have been affected or compromised,he told Ziarul Financiar. In addition, 330,000 hectares of autumn crops were affected, including 215,000 hectares of wheat, 55,000 hectares of barley and 91,000 hectares of rapeseed, have been affected the ministry says.
Farmers had until Aug, 19 to request compensation.
