Agriculture Minister Petre Daea said on Wednesday that more than 94% of Romania’s wheat area has been harvested so far, but weather conditions are negatively affecting corn and sunflower, with 200,000 hectares affected.

• “To date, more than 94% of the wheat area has been harvested in Romania. We meant to speed up the harvest to prevent crop loss due to shaking.
• Farmers have very good stocks, and Romania has the opportunity to harvest on this date, if there was uniform ripening, in 7 days the entire wheat area in Romania.
• This is impossible due to the difference in temperatures and vegetation in one place in another. Therefore, we still need to collect 4 percent within the Carpathian arc. It is about Mures, Covasna and Brasov.
• In general, we can say, and I will definitely present to you when we have harvested the last area of ​​wheat, that we have all the volume and availability for export that the country needs. Therefore, we have such bread to meet the needs of the country, obviously, and the restoration of culture.” This was announced by the Minister of Agriculture Petre Daeabefore the Government meeting.

On the other hand, Daea said the weather is affecting corn and sunflower.

• “The weather is causing problems, corn and sunflowers are suffering. Control teams work on site and determine the extent of damage and loss. (..)
• We now have over 200,000 hectares that will be affected to varying degrees, meaning both total compromise and 30-50% damage. There are no problems in the irrigated areas and there will be no problems, although in the southern part of the country, due to the low level of the Danube, our pumping stations are unable to pump water,” Daea said.

Daea said that together with the Ministry of the Environment, measures have been taken to ensure that warnings on certain sections of the Danube are specifically interpreted on the spot.

“Today, although we have low levels in the last part of the Danube, the levels in place provide our absorption capacity and the level of operation, so the irrigation systems work. Crops in the irrigated perimeter were not affected,” Daea said.