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PM Orban: Suspending cereal exports does not apply to EU countries
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said the suspension, during the state of emergency, of the exports of cereals and other agricultural products do not apply to EU countries.
"We have verified, based on the information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, the situation of the stocks of certain agricultural products and in order to guarantee that we will have sufficient wheat, corn, sunflower or derived products we decided to forbid exports during the state of emergency. I am not talking about exports to the EU countries, because, unfortunately, the information reached the public in a wrong form, we have not and we cannot ban exports to EU countries, as we are part of the EU, where we have free movement of persons, goods," PM Ludovic Orban told the Antena 1 private television broadcaster on Friday when he was asked if Romania is facing the danger of having a "bread crisis," after the Government banned exports of cereals.
He also underscored that the ban was "temporary" and only refers to the period of the state of emergency, as a guarantee that "no Romanian will remain without bread and other foodstuffs."
Interior Minister Marcel Vela has announced a new military ordinance on Thursday evening, the eighth, with further restrictions to come in force within the curfew in place in Romania due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new ordinance says that exports of wheat, barley, oats, corn, rice, wheat flour, soybeans, seed oil and sugar during the state of emergency.
Holde Agri Invest SA, a Romanian agricultural company operating 7,000 hectares of farmland that expects to be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange has expressed its concern related to the measures affecting the agricultural sector as included in Military Ordinance 8, which was issued last night, on April 9th.
“This measure has a potential detrimental effect on the financial situation of the Romanian farmers and can negatively impact the whole Romanian agricultural sector. As an example, each year Romania produces between 9 to 10 million of tonnes of wheat, out of which estimated 3,5 million tonnes is used internally, while remained amount is going for an export. At the current moment, Romania does not have the storage capacity to hold this amount of cereal internally. On top of this, forbidding exports will lead to artificially lowering the price of the crops, below the expected price, thus having a negative impact on the financial situation of Romanian farmers who will lose money not being able to sell their crops locally, or will have to sell them with a lower profit margin,” says Holde Agri Invest in a press release.
According to Bloomberg,Romania became the first country to cut off grain exports during the coronavirus pandemic, a dramatic move that could fan worries about the global food supply.
Romania, the second-biggest wheat shipper in the European Union, has already harvested and sold much of its crop at this time of the season. Less than 1% of EU exports would be affected, according to estimates from agriculture advisory UkrAgroConsult.
Still, the decision is still another sign that the world’s major food producers are fearful about their own supply as shoppers hoard cupboard staples and the virus snarls key trading routes. It’ll also revive memories of past export bans that caused chaos and soaring food prices.
A wheat cargo sold by Romania to Egypt’s state-run buyer has already been held up by the new restrictions, Bloomberg says.