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Corn: A golden opportunity to fix the belated sowing

April 13, 2018 at 12:31 PM , Starry Night Ltd.
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SOFIA. Favorable weather conditions encourage farmers that not all is lost, yet. Shipments to EU markets rise; those to non-EU ones, trail behind.

BULGARIA. Nationwide, the sowing of corn has been quite belated due to earlier disfavoring weather conditions, infusing the soil with abundant water reserves. As a result, active fieldwork has been yet pulled back.

Corn: the road ahead

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, by the 5th of April 2018, planted land with corn stood at 1,745 ha. By that time last year, farmers managed to sow fields of 79,968 ha, which on a year-to-year basis is close to 98% in favor of last year. Anyhow, the most recent weather forecast predicts temperatures, which most of the days will be above the threshold that is usual for the Spring season, to maintain their highs at least till the end of the second ten-days period of the month. Hopefully, such meteorological conditions will allow farmers to confidently enter fields and start active fieldwork on a larger scale. Yet, the optimal period of sowing corn will definitely have passed in some regions.

       Harvest 2017-18

(01.09.2017 - 06.04.2018)

          units in MT

Beginning availability

580,000

Aggregate output

2,315,387

Imports

10,460

Domestic consumption

780,000

   food & industrial usage

300,000

   feed

480,000

Exports to the world

912,222

   to EU markets

   757,257

   to rest of the world

   154,965

Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture

A coin has two different faces

Harvest 2017-18 was a success for local farmers nationwide, with the exception of really several fields, mainly within the Northwest and central North regions, that were severely hit by sudden hailstorms; and as a result, farmers there got their corn stalks hammered into the ground. The high-quality characteristics of corn, together with competitive prices – current prices (0.142 EUR/kg EXW) are lower than those of last year at that time (0.154 EUR/kg EXW) – have maintained a strong total export rate so far in the season. According to local authorities, up-to-date total exports exceed those of last year by 7.51%; with shipments to EU markets, leading those of the previous season by 12.35%; while those to non-EU markets lag behind by 11.17% on a yearly basis. Competitive forces within the Black sea basin exert pressure on exports outside the Union, and as a result, shipped volumes suffered. There is no short-term indication the trends will reverse.

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