Corn: Will the halcyon days of last year be repeated?
May 18, 2018 at 2:40 PM ,
Starry Night Ltd.
BULGARIA. Harvest 2017-18 was a success. Farmers collected an aggregate output of 2,562,749 mt, which on a yearly basis stood by 15.12% higher than that of last year, according to local authorities. The reasons behind the higher output was not a larger area of sowed land (in both years, farmers combined approximately similar acreages of land - close to 420,000 ha), as it was the auspicious weather in the few months before harvest. Months before the nationwide sowing campaign began, local market players predicted farmers would plant about 440,000 ha of corn for the upcoming harvest in September.
Corn: Still in the fields, sowing
Although the optimal period of sowing has already passed, in places farmers, still wrestling with weather conditions, are in the fields, planting. In others, corn stalks are already several centimeters high, good looking. If a drone could take a collective picture of all corn fields within the country, the picture would most probably show a mosaic of different corn stalks’ heights since not only the campaign was belated on a nationwide level, but it also did not start on time in fields within the same region. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, by the 10th of May 2018, estimates for sowed land with corn reached 382,041 ha, which on a year-to-year basis stand by 1.3% lower than those of last year this time. However, even though the difference between both sowing campaigns of the two consecutive years has narrowed down substantially, some farmers consider the option of replanting later as quite real.
|
Harvest 2017-18 (01.09.2017 - 11.05.2018) units in MT |
|
|
Beginning availability |
580,000 |
|
Aggregate output |
2,562,749 |
|
Imports |
17,243 |
|
Domestic consumption |
933,600 |
|
food & industrial usage |
388,000 |
|
Feed |
538,000 |
|
Seeds |
7,600 |
|
Exports to the world |
1,142,088 |
|
to EU markets |
911,270 |
|
to rest of the world |
230,818 |
Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture
Size begets size
The higher quality of the grain this year has propelled exports. By the end of last week, total exports reached 1,142,088 mt, which represents an increase of last years’ shipped quantities abroad by 30.53%. The majority of corn is exported to the EU markets, as customary destinations are Spain, Greece, France, among others. Smaller quantities go to markets outside the Union such as Libya, according to local authorities. Within the following month, exports are forecasted to keep the momentum high due to a stronger demand from EU countries.
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