In recent days, the Romanian media has paid serious attention to the measures that the local Ministry of Agriculture is considering to secure its own exports.

They aim to give Romanian farmers priority access to the port of Constanta during the harvest season, which could limit grain supplies from Ukraine.

We remind you that after the Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea were blocked as a result of the Russian invasion, the port in Constanta, in turn, was blocked by huge quantities of Ukrainian grain.

But the port is now facing new problems, and it is unlikely to cope with the quantities of grain from Romania and Ukraine at the start of the harvest, in a few weeks. "During discussions with Brussels and Kiev, Romania's Ministry of Agriculture will propose optimizing commercial grain flows at the port of Constanta to protect local farmers during harvest," the Agriculture Ministry told Reuters.

At maximum capacity, up to 25 million tons of grain are exported annually through the port of Constanta. Romania is one of the largest producers of cereals in the EU.

The consulting firm Agritel estimates that this year Romania will harvest 8.76 million tons of wheat, while the association Coceral bets on 9.57 million tons of wheat. The Romanian consulting firm AGRIColumn is even more optimistic in its forecast, betting on a harvest of 10.5 million tons of wheat.

The same agency estimates that in the 2023/2024 season, Romania will have 21 million tons of grain and oil crops for export.

In terms of trade, at the beginning of the week the prices of grain for delivery to the port of Constanta were: bread wheat - 220 EUR/ton, feed wheat - 197 EUR/ton, corn - 195 EUR/ton, barley - 185 EUR/ton, sunflower – 400 dollars/ton.