Drought lingers as threat to Romania’s 2013 crops

The drought which has driven Romania’s corn harvest down 40% is presenting risks to 2013 harvests too, hampering farmers making autumn sowings, and fuelling a drop of nearly one-half in rapeseed plantings.

Rains last month had fostered a “fair improvement” in soil moisture levels in Romania, after a drought which has cut the corn crop in the country, typically one of the world’s top-10 producers, well below last year’s 10.5m tonnes, the US Department of Agriculture bureau in Bucharest said.

The bureau estimated this year’s Romanian corn harvest at 6.1m tonnes, 200,000 tonnes below the official USDA forecast, and the International Grains Council’s 6.5m-tonne figure.

However, the rainfall had come far from neutralising the impact of the drought, which also left Danube river levels “critically low” for much of the summer, and has prompted a drop of some 25% in sunflower output.

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