Bulgaria Sees Drought Slashing ’09 Wheat Crop by 20% - Media

© Anelia Nikolova

SOFIA (Bulgaria), June 10 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria expects wheat output to fall by 20% this year due to dry conditions, state-run news agency BTA reported on Wednesday.

The estimate is based on the assessment of crop condition by May 22, BTA (www.bta.bg) reported, quoting Deputy Agriculture Minister Svetla Bachvarova.

Bulgaria harvested 4.4 million tonnes of wheat from some 1.03 million hectares in 2008, the highest amount in four years and twice as much as the country needs to meet domestic demand.

The Balkan state sowed 1.093 million hectares with winter wheat in 2008, up 5.8% from a year earlier.

Wheat output will fall by 25%-30% in 2009, as yields are seen at 2.7-2.8 tonnes per hectare, the chairman of the National Grain Producers Association, Radoslav Hrisov, said in the BTA article. Last year's wheat yields were around 4.3 tonnes per hectare.

In April 2009 the ministry forecast a yield of 3.4 to 4.2 tonnes of wheat per hectare.

 

 

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