Romania has enough grain and food reserves to weather Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is not considering limiting wheat exports at the moment, farm minister Adrian Chesnoiu said on Monday.
Grain exporters are looking for alternative sources of wheat and corn as a Russian invasion cuts off Ukrainian supply, traders said in late February.
European Union member Romania, a major grain supplier that, like Ukraine, exports through the Black Sea but outside the conflict zone, was seen as an obvious back-up option for merchants.
'An Exporting Country'
"Traditionally we are an exporting country because we produce more than we consume," Chesnoiu told reporters.
"On a good year, Romania produces over 11 million tons of wheat while domestic consumption is somewhere around 4.3 million, that's why I said Romania is not in the situation of the other states which are trying to ensure their internal consumption."
"From the assessments we have made at the ministry so far there is no risk that the population cannot be supplied to."
Ukraine has introduced export licences for its key agriculture commodities wheat, corn and sunflower oil, Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted a government resolution as saying on Sunday.
Elsewhere, world food prices hit a record high in February, led by a surge in vegetable oils and dairy products, to post a 20.7% increase year-on-year, the UN food agency has said.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) food price index, which tracks the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 140.7 points last month against a downwardly revised 135.4 in January. That figure was previously given as 135.7.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM – your source for the latest Supply Chain news. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
