WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S. — Grain exports from Romania are forecast to increase by 1.4% in the 2019-20 marketing year, which, if realized, would eclipse the country’s record exports of 12.9 million tonnes in 2018-19, according to the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA indicated corn exports from Romania are forecast to increase by 7% in 2019-20, reflecting a larger harvest and limited domestic demand.

“Romanian’s corn area increased by about 10% year-on-year (250,000 hectares) in MY 2019-20, as poor conditions for rapeseed led some farmers to convert their rapeseed acres into corn,” the USDA said. “Rains in early spring 2019 followed a very dry fall 2018 and winter 2018-19, which created generally good corn planting conditions.”

The USDA said it expects an 3% increase in barley exports in 2019-20. Although barley planting conditions were difficult due to dry fall planting conditions, the crop benefited from favorable springtime conditions, the USDA said.

Prolonged dryness in Romania during the fall of 2018 proved challenging to winter wheat planting conditions, the USDA said. Abundant rainfall in the late spring followed by warm weather allowed wheat to develop, but the USDA said the winter wheat crop could not fully recover from the planting delays and late emergence. Conditions in Romania, coupled with an E.U. wheat crop that was described as “generally good,” led the USDA to reduce its forecasted wheat exports for Romania by 4% in 2019-20.