This year the wheat will cost more, up to 3 lei per kg. In a news conference on August 6, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Ion Sula said the despite the high temperatures, there were harvested 920,000 tonnes of wheat. Compared with the average for the last five years, the harvest is higher, but it is lower than last year. The average crop per hectare was 2.8 tonnes, but there were also set record highs of 7 tonnes per hectare, IPN reports.
“This volume guarantees the country’s food security and fodder security. We will be able to export a rather large quantity,” said the minister, noting that Moldova needs 340,000 tonnes of wheat for the internal needs.
According to the minister, some 65% of the harvested wheat is food wheat, as opposed to 40% last year. Thus, the wheat could be sold at a higher piece this year. In 2014, 1 kg of wheat cost 1.8 lei to 2.2 lei, while this year the prices vary between 2.8 lei and 3 lei. 1 kg of barley costs 2.5 to 2.7 lei, as against 1.5 to 1.7 lei last year.
“We must take into account that the inputs used to cultivate grain crops were better than the previous years. We consider this is one of the main indicators that influenced the price rises,” said Ion Sula. During the season, the grain prices decrease, but go up by about 10% when the grains are stored up.
