A boost in food prices

Last year, in Romania, food prices went up. The highest increases were related to potatoes, vegetables and oil. IMF foresees that in 2011 food and energy prices will go up too.

Minister of Agriculture has recently moderated these concerns by saying that an immediate increase is unacceptable and superficial.

During a debate held at Radio România, Vlad Gheorghe, President of Europroduct Company, has declared that the Romanian domestic vegetable market is taken over by inland producers only six months a year.

‘The Romanian market has been taken over by inlanders for six months, from early February to the end of October. Surprisingly, selling Romanian potatoes ended in November and what we could see and what did exist on the market were only imported potatoes because of the climate and the rainy weather which determined the last year’s production to decrease’, Vlad Gheorghe asserted.

According to statistics, in 2010, in Romania, vegetable prices went up by 21%-22%.
The President of Europroduct Company believes that, generally, production prices from Romanian producers increased due to the highly priced diesel oil.

‘This growth is also determined by the increase in the price of electricity, heat, materials, and most of all, of fuel, especially diesel oil; as you well know, in the last couple of days, the media has reported the fact that we have the highest prices per litre of fuel and all this has influenced the prices of vegetables. We did not benefit from subsidized diesel oil as it was foreseen and all those prices mounted up the delivery price of the final product’, Vlad Gheorghe added.

After being asked if in Romania was exporting vegetables or fruits any longer, Ştefan Nicolae, President of Agrostar Company, declared that the cultivated surfaces diminished very much and thus nothing could be sold abroad for the time being.

‘I can tell you that, presently, we have not exported any vegetable or fruit. We have imported very much because the cultivated surfaces diminished considerably comparing, for instance, with 1990 when we had one billion hectares for vegetables but presently, it got to about 150,000-200,000 hectares’, Ştefan Nicolae asserted.


Translated by: Cristina Anamaria Maricescu and Andreea Velicu
MA students, MTTLC, Bucharest University