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Thursday 16 July 2009

Bread and Butter issues


Bulgaria’s bread supplies threatened by poor grain crop

Bulgaria could fail to satisfy its bread demand due to the heavy downpours of the recent days that has affected its wheat crop, said Radoslav Hristov, chairman of the National Grain Producer Association (NGPA). 


Only two weeks ago grain producers expected a yield of around 3.5 million tonnes with high quality, which has now shrunk to only 1.5 million tonnes that could be used to make bread, he warned. 

The floods forced producers to start harvesting in southern Bulgarian behind schedule yesterday. The bad weather kept machines off the fields, leaving a large portion of the crop germinated before it was harvested and much of it will be wasted to animal feed, Hristov explained. 

His words were confirmed by the farming ministry and certifying company SGS, which said that germination was coupled with a risk of mould fungi. The national grain and fodder authority, which is authorised to perform quality testing, will be only able to estimate the damage once at least 60% of the land has been harvested. 

Retailers responded quickly to the latest developments, with millers having inflated bread wheat buying prices to between BGN 230 and 250 from between BGN 190 and 210 two weeks ago, Hristov said. 

Given an annual consumption of 1-1.2 million tonnes of bread, Bulgaria’s bread supplies hang in the balance due to possible exports and mounting concerns about a poor crop in Russia. Farmers are also worried about fodder exports as the crisis has depressed demand in the largest consumers including Egypt, Algeria and Syria, Hristov said.

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