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Wheat: Current exports already topped those of last year – the highest

May 10, 2018 at 12:49 PM , Starry Night Ltd.
To realize crops’ utmost potential, right now, farmers badly need showers.
To realize crops’ utmost potential, right now, farmers badly need showers.
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SOFIA. The green fields need substantial reserves of water. Even before the end of the marketing year, the country has realized the strongest export season within a period of at least twenty years.

BULGARIA. Less than two-months time left before the start of harvest 2018-19, farmers yearn for showers. Right now, the green wheat fields need enough moisture. According to local farmers within the Southeast, if rains do not fall in the following ten-days period, yields will be negatively affected. Fortunately, rains already fell in fields within the East region. The forecast for the following few days is for showers throughout the country, as somewhere they will be heavy, refilling soil reserves, while in other places rains will be sporadic. Hailstorms are expected to fall, as well.

Wheat: The highest export rate realized

According to local authorities, by the end of the first week of May 2018, total exports reached 4,242,120 mt, which represent a share of 69.15% out of total output. The latest released data by the Ministry of Agriculture places aggregate production from harvest 2017-18 at 6,134,496 mt, which on a year-to-year basis stands by 8.33% higher than realized output during the previous year. This year, farmers are hopeful to enter fields of larger sowed areas and thus realize higher output, provided the weather does not cut their expectations short.

       Harvest 2017-18

(01.07.2017 - 04.05.2018)

            units in MT

Beginning availability

179,000

Aggregate output

6,134,496

Imports

60,145

Domestic consumption

1,498,600

   food

841,000

   feed

428,000

   seeds

200,000

   industrial usage

29,600

Exports to the world

4,242,120

   to EU markets

3,557,014

   to rest of the world

685,106

Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture

Never before have local intermediary market players realized such a high export figure. Weaker harvests in Western Europe this year propelled local exports to all-time high. Indeed, shipments to the EU market reached 3,557,014 mt, which yearly stands by 46.26% higher than those during last year at this time. It is exports to non-EU markets that have been lagging behind yearly so far in the season: by the 4th of May 2018, exports to destinations outside the EU amounted to 685,106 mt while a year early, shipped volumes to such markets reached 1,468,383 mt. Competitive market pressure within the Black sea basin during the current marketing season has squeezed local exports to third world countries. With remaining stocks dwindling quickly, prices are expected to increase.

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