SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2011: Corn price between 0.7 and 1.5 lei/kg

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) released new data for corn production in Romania. Only 11% or 284,292 hectares from the total corn crops was harvested by September 14. The average production reached 4.3 tons per hectare.

Production for this area went beyond 1.22 million tones. MARD estimates for this year a production of 10.82 million tons of corn from the total of 2.6 million hectares (4.1 tons per hectare).

AGROROMANIA.RO presents more information regarding corn production estimates for year 2011 and corn price for September 2011.

Experts consider that Romania and Ukraine corn exports can contribute in reducing the global deficit and lead to a price reduction for this commodity. Corn price increased with 67% on global markets, since the beginning of 2011.

“Romania and Ukraine can assimilate an important part of corn demand that now is supplied mainly by United States and Latin America”, said Peter Beirmann, CEO at Aston FFI cereal trader, in Lausanne (Switzerland), according to Bloomberg.

He claims that Black Sea suppliers could compensate for the demand in Egypt and rest of North Africa. Ukrainian authorities announced a record corn production for 2011 expecting a harvest of around 17 million tons of corn. It would be 70% higher that the last year’s production. Ukraine could export 10 million tons in these conditions.

Corn was priced at $285.80 per ton at Chicago Mercantile Exchange for December futures contracts. Corn is sold for 0.7 to 1.5 lei/kg on Romanian market.