Bulgaria’s wheat exports from Varna hit 1.3 million mt, corn exports double

Wheat exports from the Bulgarian port of Varna have risen 10.1% to reach 1.38 million mt in the marketing year to January 7, according to data from the Bulgarian government published Thursday.

Overall exports from the country are as high as 3.2 million mt, according to a market source, with corn at 705,000 mt.

Corn exports, although coming from a lower base, have nearly doubled to 296,291 mt, an increase of 95.3%, with barley increasing 537.3% to 88,684 mt.

Exports to countries outside the EU currently stand at 351,245 mt for wheat and  87,431 mt for corn, according to the most recent European Commission data.

The wheat exports continue to mark out the Black Sea region as the world’s wheat supplier, as the country’s exports join the 20.7 million mt of exports that Russia has churned out this marketing year.

That has hurt exports from other traditional supply locations, with the EU and US both seeing exports of agricultural products down on last year’s numbers, despite strong harvests.

Competing with Russia brings challenges, however, with neighbouring countries like Greece providing an outlet for some of the volume.

“There are quite high pace of trucks flowing to Greece… Russia and Ukraine are our competitors, but if Russia is selling hard, then we are suffering,” a second trading source said, as wheat prices have been depressed in the face of substantial supply.