Employers organisations suggest solutions to food crisis

The Alliance of Romanian Employers’ Confederations and the Romanian Tourism Employers Federation presented on Tuesday the solutions for solving the food crisis that is threatening Romania.

According to the ACPR spokesperson, Dan Matei Agathon, there is a crisis of rising prices and not a crisis of production, which will affect Romania in the next two years if no action is taken.

The proposed solutions on Tuesday by the ACPR include the reduction of the VAT to 5 percent for basic products (milk, meat, wheat and corn).

‘Only if you apply a tax of 5 percent for wheat, the state budget will increase by two billion euros annually. You can obtain much more money from the black economy by using economic levers. Given that the VAT will be reduced to 5 percent, few people will be able to access the black market for wheat’, Dan Matei Agathon stated.

Another solution proposed by the ACPR is to increase the meal vouchers from 9 to 12 lei and reintroduce them in the state system, a measure that will lead to an increase in food consumption and in the state budget.

The Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Adrian Rădulescu, highlighted the fact that the food crisis must not be mistaken for the economic crisis.

‘The only problem that our country might have at the moment is the decreasing purchasing power.’

‘We cannot talk about a food crisis in Romania’, Adrian Rădulescu said.

The Alliance of Romanian Employers’ Confederations is an alliance that comprises nine national employers’ confederations.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University