Previously Logos Press wrote According to the summer forecast of the National Bureau of Statistics, more than 800 thousand tons of sunflower will be harvested from 414 thousand hectares in Moldova this year. However, later, as noted by agricultural producers, due to the drought of the second half of summer, especially in August, in the south of the country in most farms the average yield of sunflower fell below 1 t/ha, in the center and in the north – below 2 t/ha. The most optimistic grain traders in late summer – early autumn estimated the potential gross sunflower harvest at 700-750 thousand tons.
Before the October rains, only farmers in the south of Moldova had time to harvest sunflower almost completely, and their forecast for a weak harvest was fully justified. By now, according to the operative estimations of the employees of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry MAIA, in the central regions of the country the harvest has been gathered from about 70-80% of all sunflower fields, in the north of the country about 70% of areas under this crop have not been harvested yet. At the beginning of the current week, contrary to expectations, small precipitation in many areas continued, high humidity persists, the wind is weak. The mass entry of harvesting equipment into the field had to be postponed for at least a few more days or even a week.
In such a situation, according to Mikhail Vronskikh, an expert of the National Research and Production Center for Seed Production, the risk of spreading diseases (white and gray rot) in unharvested sunflower fields is sharply increasing. The result will be the destruction of plant “baskets” and shattering of seeds before and during harvesting. This will inevitably lead to the loss of at least 10-15% of production. As a result, at the end of the harvesting campaign of commercial sunflower in Moldova may be much less than the projected volume, namely – only 600-650 thousand tons.
According to Yuriy Rizha, an expert in agro-marketing, if by the end of October Moldovan farmers will not manage to harvest at least 80% of all fields, the price for sunflower (with seed moisture – no more than 9%) may temporarily rise to 10.5-10.6 lei/kg. At the moment, wholesale prices for this product range from 9.3 lei/kg (north) to 9.9 lei/kg (south, Giurgiulesti – Cahul). However, the moisture content of the seeds is at best slightly below 12%.
