Next monday, June 3rd, Anca Maria Vladoi (third generation of winemaker), will come to our headquarters in Crucea to welcome Slow Food Chapter and Bio Farm’s guests.

His grand father, Niculae Vladoi, was a passionate viticulturist who brought with him the love for wine and grapes, setting up at “Siminoc” the first vineyard consisting of hybrid and noble breeds. Although a great part of the vineyard was confiscated during the Communist regime, the passion continued to exist, even if it came down to the little vineyard they had next to the family’s house.

After the Communist regime ended in 1989, the family reacquired the legacy left by Niculae Vladoi: a 19 hectares old and debilitated vineyard from which the family will produce the first wine in 1995. In 2005, the Vladoi family decides to replace all the existing vine shoot with breeds that had a greater capacity to accumulate aromas and sugar, at the expense of quantity.

The modernization project for the winery was approved in 2009. A drip irrigation system was put in place and a new viticulture tractor and other gears were bought. The funding obtained through the modernization project helped the family to create a young grapevine consisting of superior breeds. Since then, the grapes have been processed on a performant production line including stainless steel fermentation tanks, pneumatic grape press and other facilities that are required to produce high quality wines.

In this manner, at Siminoc arose a modern winery where the grapes have been harvested from the family’s plantation and turned into premium wines.

Welcome DOMENIUL VLADOI

Romania consolidates its position as a major producer and exporter of cereals in the European Union as it registered good crops during the last couple of years.

Last year, Romania was the third producer of cereals in the EU, after France and Germany, with 31.2 million of tonnes.

The eastern European country is now the biggest producer of corn and sunflower seeds within the EU, with total output of almost 19 million tonnes of corn and 3.35 million tonnes of sunflower seeds, according to Agerpres.

Due to larger output, Romania’s export of cereals rose last year by 1 million tonnes up to 12 million tonnes, a record level, and the value of cereal exports was EUR 2.2 billion.

Rising food import

In 2018, Romania imported food and live animals of EUR 6.07 billion, up 2 percent against 2017, while exports rose by 3.6 percent up to EUR 4.2 billion, according to fresh Eurostat data.

The Romanian agriculture sector recorded its best results in history last year, with record yields for wheat, maize and sunflower.

The total grain harvest in 2018 – about 31 million tons – ranks Romania on the third place in the EU but first for maize harvest for the second year in a row.

Eurostat data show that Romania ranks third in the EU, after France and Germany, in cereal production, with 31.89 million tons.

Despite larger cereal output, Romania has registered last year an all-time high value of food imports on higher domestic demand.

Source: Business Review 30 May 2019

A “Slow Food” chapter of about 20 italian people will be visiting our company next month (June the 2nd).

We are very proud of this achievement as BIO FARM is constantly increasing its image through hard work and passion for nature.

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE is not a trend! is a way of living!

May 2019

In 2018, the price of wheat had a spectacular evolution, after climbing strongly during the summer, during the harvest and immediately after, with a price increase of over RON 100 per ton in July. Wheat reached its highest price in recent years this week, as its quotation at the MATIF Paris stock exchange was RON 954 / ton (on 15 January 2019) and the CPT price of Constanta offered by some traders in this week being RON 922 / ton.

According to an analysis conducted by AgroGo to see how this season’s price compares with the previous one, we present the chart below for a comparison of the wheat price over the same period of the year for the last 3 seasons.

There is a positive (positive) difference of over RON 200 / ton over the previous season.

What is to be expected next? The wheat price for the new season, which will be harvested in the summer, is now traded on futures contracts (with future delivery) at a lower value than the current one. Thus the current price for wheat with delivery in September 2019 to MATIF is RON 877 / ton, down by about RON 100 / ton on current price.

The futures curve chart below shows the current price for futures contracts for different delivery periods listed on the MATIF Paris:

These prices change every day, but as a rule, the trend only changes when information with significant changes in production or stocks changes significantly.

For those with current wheat stocks, the question remains, what will happen to the price until the production of the new season? If we were to look at what happened in the past seasons during this period (February and March are visible in the first graph), we see that as a rule the price was quite stable, both on stock exchanges and in the physical market.

But this year is a bit atypical, both because we have a season over the average of the last few years, reached this level through a sudden and unpredictable growth on stock exchanges and because in global information (regarding inventories, production and consumption) we are struck by the lack of the famous USDA reports due to the suspension of the US government and, implicitly, of the subordinate institutions.

In this context, the stock market is quite numb (especially the American one). It remains to be seen what will happen next as we approach the maturity of contracts with the following delivery dates, when traders will be forced to make trading decisions.

SOURCE: BUSINESS REVIEW January 2019

The Romanian agriculture sector recorded its best results in history last year, with record yields for wheat, maize and sunflower. The total grain harvest in 2018 – about 31 million tons – ranks Romania on the third place in the European Union (EU), but first for maize harvest for the second year in a row.

Data from the European Institute of Statistics show that Romania ranks third in the EU, after France and Germany, in cereal production, with 31.89 million tons. However, the figures from the Agriculture Ministry are slightly more weighted and indicate only 30 million tons, of which 12 million tons of grain cereal production in the summer.

In maize, Romania is for the second consecutive year on the first position in the EU with a total harvest of 19 million tons, up by almost 33 percent compared to 2017 and with a yield of 7.8 tons per hectare, ahead of France, which gained 12.59 million tons this year.

Romania produces almost 28 percent of the European Union maize. The biggest producer is Agricost (from Insula Mare a Brailei), followed by Comcereal Dolj and Transavia.

For wheat production Romania is on the 4th position in the EU with 10.27 million tons, an increase of 2.36 percent over last year and an average of 4.8 tons per ha. Sunflower harvest rose to 3.35 million tons in 2018, up 15.01 percent over 2017 at a yield of 2.9 tons / ha. This data positions Romania on the first place in the EU.
Last year was also a good year for vineyards, with grapes producing more by 74.08 percent compared to 2017, up to 83.000 tons, with a yield of 9.4 tons / ha, while grape wine increased by 13.3 percent, totaling 1.155 million tons. The average per hectare was 6.7 tons.

The International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) estimated at the end of October that Romania recorded a 21 percent increase in wine production up to 5.2 million hectoliters, higher than 2013, the record year so far, when 5.113 million hectoliters were recorded.

On the other hand, there were crops with lower production in 2018. For barley the harvest was down 1.54 percent, the total reaching 1.87 million tons, with a yield of 5.2 tons / ha; for rapeseed oil the production was 1.51 million tons, down 9.46 percent at a yield of 2.3 tons / ha; sugar beet – 921,000 tons, a 21.58 percent decrease and an average of 40.6 tons / ha, and for autumn potatoes the production was 2.4 million tons (minus 10.03 percent) with a yield of 16.7 tons / ha.

SOURCE: Business Review January 2019

Romanian farmers can access EUR 445.8 million in the first quarter of this year through the National Rural Development Program 2014-2020, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR). MADR, through the Managing Authority of the National Rural Development Program, will open new project reception sessions in the first quarter of 2019.

In the first quarter of this year, funds will be available for Sub-measures (sM): 4.1a – Investments in fruit holdings (EUR 51.013 million), 4.3 – Investments for development, modernization or adaptation of agricultural and forestry infrastructure – irrigation (EUR 200 million), 5.1 – Support for investment in preventive measures to reduce the effects of natural disasters, adverse climatic events and likely catastrophic events (EUR 14.77 million) and 5.2 – Support for investment in agricultural land reclamation and production potential affected by natural disasters, adverse environmental conditions and catastrophic events (EUR 13.68 million).The local infrastructure will also benefit from financing through new sessions for: sM 7.2 – Investments in the creation and upgrading of the small scale basic infrastructure – ITI Danube Delta (EUR 16.78 million), MC 7.4 – Support for investments in the creation or development of rural utilities (EUR 13.76 million) or sM 7.6 – Investments related to the protection of cultural heritage – ITI Danube Delta (EUR 4.99 million).

Local Action Groups will have a new funding opportunity through CM 19.3 – Preparation and implementation of Local Area Action Co-operation (GAL) activities – Component B Implementation of cooperative activities of selected GALs (EUR 9.27 million).

During the same period, sessions for Forestry, Climate and Forest Conservation Services (sM 15.1) and Prime for crop and animal breeding (sS 17.1) will be launched, the total amount of funds available for these sub-measures being EUR 110.15 million.

In 2017, Romania’s agricultural output had the third largest growth in the European Union, of over 13 percent, according to data provided by Eurostat. Continue Reading…

Romania is going through its best agricultural year in history. Record production of wheat and maize places agricultural turnover close to EUR 8 billion, KeysFin experts say in an analysis of business developments in the sector. Data from the Agriculture Ministry shows that this year’s wheat production is more than 200,000 tonnes higher than last year, exceeding 10 million tonnes, while maize would be between 14.5 and 15 million tonnes, compared to just 11.8 million tons to be harvested in France.

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BIO FARM CRUCEA SRL quality management system has continually improved to ensure the reliability of Bio Suisse certification  as well as conformance to all accreditation requirements in organic agriculture.

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UAE’s Al Dahra, the owner of Agricost and its concession of the Big Island of Braila – Europe’s largest consolidated farm -, plans to invest another USD 500 million in Romania in the next five years, in various sectors. Continue Reading…