Serbia's Union of Co-operatives said on Monday the country was likely to produce only around 1.5 million tonnes of wheat this year, the lowest in 10 years, and would have to import to meet demand.
According to official statistics, some 563,000 hectares were sown last autumn, but the crop was devastated by heavy floods earlier this year. Flooding was estimated to have ruined 5.0 percent of Serbia's 4.5 million hectares of arable land. "Heavy underground and surface waters have completely damaged winter crops," union president Dragoljub Govedarevic was quoted by Beta news agency as saying.
Govedarevic said forecast output was not enough to meet Serbia's annual needs and that the country would have to turn to imports. Serbia needs 2.0 million tonnes of wheat.
Serbia produced 2.0 million tonnes of wheat from 563,000 ha in 2005 and average yields stood at 3.56 tonnes/ha.
He also said the price of wheat would have to rise by at least 30 percent to reflect lower output and high production costs.
Comments
Comments are closed.