GRAIN PROCESSORS: We have enough wheat to last us until the next harvest!

A crisis of bakery wheat is out of the question for the near future, claim the representatives of miller and bakery producers, after the farmers announced increases of the price of wheat in the coming weeks.

Last year"s good harvest will cover the domestic demand at least until March-April, said the Chairman of the Romanian National Association of Flour Milling and Baking Industries (ANAMOB), Viorel Marin.

ANAMOB"s chairman claims that, given the current situation, the announcement made by the farmers concerning the increase of wheat price by 30% is "populist" and "unfounded" and feels that some producers are trying to conceal "other problems" by increasing the price of wheat.

In turn, the chairman of the Romanian Professional Association of the Flour Milling, Baking and Flour Products Industry "ROMPAN", Aurel Popescu, stated that wheat and flour reserves are enough to last until February.

The leader of ROMPAN has stated that, right now, wheat from domestic production is not yet being exported, being sold on the domestic market instead, at a price of some 0,45 - 0,47 lei per kg.

"We have enough wheat to last us until the next harvest", added Popescu, who explained: "The current wheat reserves are enough to last until March.

Until then, meaning until the next harvest we will need some 600.000 tons of wheat, which does not represent a problem".

Aurel Popescu has given reassurance that the price of wheat will not increase in the near future.

The leader of ROMPAN added that processors and producers have firm contracts signed between October and January concerning the acquisition price of cereals, any increase in price being unfounded.

In turn, the president of The National Federation of Agricultural Producers of Romania (FNPAR), Viorel Matei, has stated that processors don"t take into account the needs of farmers.

"They just want to get rich off producers, by offering small prices using cereals, and off consumers, by charging high prices for bread", said Matei.

The chairman of FNPAR stated that the price of wheat will increase by at most 30% in the coming period, but this increase will be tied to the reference price of December 2008.

Moreover, Tudor Dorobanţu, the general secretary of the Agrostar Federation, says that the strong devaluation of the leu against the Euro is practically forcing producers to increase wheat prices.

Farmers say that the current price offered by processors, of some 90 euros/ton, does not even cover the production cost and they further said that it the price is low even compared to the one paid by the intervention bodies, of 101,3 Euros/ton.

But this price per ton of wheat is difficult to obtain because of the quality requirements.

Proof: The Agency for Agricultural Payments and Interventions (APIA) yesterday announced, in a press release, that is has turned down, after an administrative verification, two procurement notices for the acquisition of 500 tons of common wheat, and 500 tons of corn respectively, as an intervention measure. What this means is that using this system, all holders of cereal stock can sell their common wheat, durum wheat, barley, sorghum and corn to APIA - the state owned intervention body - at a price of 101,31 Euros/ton.

The intervention on the market is currently active, having been initiated starting November 1st 2008, and will be in effect until May 31st, 2009.