ROMANIA (9 June)
Prospects remain very favourable for the 2005 wheat crop. The winter wheat area is estimated to have increased by about 13 percent above the area harvested last year, to 2.2 million hectares, and weather conditions have been generally ideal since planting last autumn. Wheat output has been officially forecast in early June at 7.6 million, virtually unchanged from last year’s good crop. Planting of the spring/summer grain crops was carried out under favourable conditions. However, even if planted areas have changed little from last year, output of these grains is expected to fall because of an expected decline in yields from 2004’s bumper levels.