Ideal growing weather has significantly boosted 2004/05 wheat production in Romania and Bulgaria, two nations which saw last year's crops withered by drought and a severe winter, the US Agriculture Department said on Friday.
Romania is estimated to harvest 6.5 million tonnes of wheat in 2004/05, up from just 2.0 million tonnes in the previous year, the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a special report on the two Black Sea grain producers.
Bulgaria's wheat production for 2004/05 is estimated at 3.3 million tonnes, up 94 percent from last year, the USDA said.
The increase in wheat crops in both nations is due to a large increase in planted area as well as a big jump in crop yields, the USDA said. The USDA report also noted growers in both nations rarely used the environmentally sound practice of no-tillage farming.