THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA (4 February)
Cereal output in 2004 was well above the average of the past five years, mainly due to favourable weather conditions. Output of wheat, the main cereal grown, was estimated at about 370 000 tonnes. As a result, imports of wheat in the 2004/05 (July/June) marketing year are expected to return to a normal level of about 65 000 tonnes, after rising to over 100 000 tonnes in the previous year.
Estimates put the area of winter cereals (mostly wheat and barley) for the harvest in 2005 at about 160 000 hectares, slightly above average. After a slow start, official reports in late November indicated that planting operations were about 90 percent complete with the remaining 10 percent expected to be planted by 10 December. Moisture conditions were reported to be satisfactory for emergence and establishment of the crops. Assuming normal weather for the rest of the season and average yields, the winter cereal crop should amount to about 420 000 tonnes, slightly above the recent average.