LAPAR: Agriculture Minister's statements on record yields led to collapse of prices

Minister of Agriculture Petre Daea's statements, according to which Romania has had record wheat, maize and sunflower yields this year have caused the cereal prices to collapse, Laurentiu Baciu, chairman of the Association of Agricultural Producers' Associations in Romania (LAPAR) stated on Wednesday. 

"Producers are discontent that these statements have led to the collapse of the market and have brought enormous damage. Yields are not by far historic, but lower than last year. For wheat, they are 30 percent lower than last year, for sunflower, by 30-35 percent," Baciu specified. 

Moreover, he maintains farmers have incurred losses this summer due to May-June drought and abundant rains in July. 

"How can we ask for compensation from the European Commission for these losses, given that the Agriculture Minister says we have historic yields? These statements have actually reached into our pockets," LAPAR's chairman shows. 

At the end of August, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Petre Daea said this year's wheat production is more than 200,000 tonnes higher than last year, exceeding 10 million tonnes, although it was a tough year, in which "Romania has been ravaged by a whole series of extreme natural phenomena." 

The Agriculture Minister added that Romania also had a good production, much higher than last year, in barley.