These estimates are based on operational data from the MAIA Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, which in turn are based on reports from district departments of agriculture. The sectoral ministry officials note in this regard that information from the field may be sketchy, and more complete data will be provided by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova in the near future. Nevertheless, a very significant reduction in the area planted with corn is a reality.
It is dictated, first of all, by climate change. Last year, due to the drought, extreme in strength and duration, farmers lost most of their crops. Thus, according to the assessment of the Association of Grain Exporters Agrocereale, with the national average yield of only 1.86 tons per hectare, Moldova produced only about 863 thousand tons (while in more or less normal years the harvest exceeded 1.5 million tons).
However, a very serious shortfall in corn harvest did not provoke the collapse of the grain market of RM. In this regard, it should be taken into account that by the beginning of the 2024-25 marketing year, according to Agrocereale estimates, the marketable remains of corn of the previous year’s harvest on the elevators of grain traders and agricultural producers amounted to at least 300 thousand tons. At the same time, the internal consumption of corn (livestock, alcohol and food industry) in the Republic of Moldova is estimated at a maximum of 600 thousand tons per year.
Due to low (much lower than expected) purchase prices for corn, its export in the period July-December 2024 amounted to only 42 thousand tons – many times less than in previous years, which were considered crisis years. Accordingly, at the beginning of 2025, according to the expert assessment of the staff of the industry association was 521 thousand tons of corn. That is, it was almost equal to the annual capacity of the domestic market of the Republic of Moldova.
Large runoffs, weak dynamics of strengthening of purchase prices, unfavorable weather conditions during the spring sowing campaign ultimately led to a very significant reduction in the area under corn of the new harvest.
The problem is that farmers replaced corn in the structure of spring crops not with some other drought-resistant grain crops – for example, grain sorghum – but with sunflower. At the same time, as Logos Press wrote earlier, the sowing of oilseeds in the Republic of Moldova already exceeds the agronomic norm.
