ROMANIA (2 June)
In Romania, the outlook for the 2003 winter grain crops has also deteriorated after a promising start to the season at planting time. Adverse weather during the winter has caused the forecast wheat output to be reduced from earlier expectations to 6 million tonnes. This would, nevertheless, still be well up from the previous year’s drought-reduced harvest. Although spring planting has been significantly delayed by the prolonged winter weather ample soil moisture reserves will favour development of this year’s maize crop.