Bulgaria: Over 3 Mln Tonnes Wheat, 1.3 Mln Tonnes Sunflower in Store – Agricultural Producers Association

Bulgarian farmers keep over 3 million tonnes of bread wheat and 1.3 million tonnes of sunflower in their warehouses, Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Producers Governing Board Chair Ventsislav Varbanov told journalists here on Monday. He fears that the problem will get worse because the 2022 and the 2023 harvests will probably overlap.

On May 3, Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev said that 1.6 million tonnes of wheat were available as of March 31, 2022, compared to 2.4 million tonnes a year earlier. On April 29, Gechev said that there were 2.5 million tonnes of first-quality wheat in Bulgaria and 1.16 million tonnes of sunflower.

Varbanov does not think that the current ban on Ukrainian grain import produces the desired effect. “So far it has not affected prices which are set on international exchanges. At this stage, our expectations fell short of actual reality. At one of several meetings we’ve had with sunflower importers, they said they would start purchasing Bulgarian sunflower. The point is that the prices are low and most colleagues would rather not sell, waiting for the prices to rise instead of selling at a loss,” the Association President explained.

Varbanov said that the sector is at its worst for 30 years. The losses are huge, e.g. fertilizers were purchased at BGN 1,800/tonne but have now cheapened to under BGN 400/tonne.

Tags: grain, ban, bread wheat, warehouses, Ukraine, Bulgaria, импорт, harvest, sunflower