Bulgaria's Wheat Output to Drop by 20%, Ukrainian Firm Predicts

Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Naydenov pictured driving a harvester near Bozhurets in 2011. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's wheat harvest will fall about 20% in 2012, following adverse weather, according to Kiev, Ukraine- based UkrAgroConsult.

Thus, if UkrAgroConsult's forecast is correct, Bulgaria's wheat production will decline to about 3.4 million metric tons in 2012, down from the record output of 4.25 million metric tons in 2011.

Bulgaria will still will be able to export grain even after wheat losses, the researcher said in an e-mailed statement. Adverse weather damaged about 30% of the country's winter wheat crop, UkrAgroConsult said.

A total of 9.8 million decares were planted with wheat in Bulgaria in the fall of 2011, according to Bulgarian Agriculture Ministry data released in November 2011, an increase compared with the 9.2 million decares planed in 2010, and 9.6 million in 2009.

In 2011, Bulgaria's agriculture sector achieved a higher wheat yield in 2011 than was originally expected; a total of 4.25 million metric tons of wheat were produced in 2011. The average yield per decare is 409 kg, compared with 360 kg in 2010.

This was an increase compared with 2010 when Bulgaria's wheat output was 4.09 million metric tons.

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