The government decided to increase the ceiling on the state reserves of wheat to 400 thousand tonnes from 350 thousand tonnes last year, citing the large 7mn tonnes wheat crop and the prospects for adverse weather conditions during the next year. The ministry of agriculture will draft an ordinance with this effect. However the state’s intervention instruments are limited within framework of the EU agriculture policy, as long as the EUR 101.3 per ton intervention price is much below the current market prices. Moreover, the state is confined to purchase grains at the said intervention price during Nov-May, which does not help the small farmers with no storage capacity. The government’s decision comes after President Traian Basescu urged the state bodies to store more wheat in order to help small farmers that can not sell their crops. The state’s wheat reserves have gradually decreased from 1.2mn tonnes before 1996 and it became subject to speculations as it is managed by private depositors. The large traders purchase at low collection prices the crops from the small farmers during the harvesting period and further take advantage of the higher market prices.