The
International Fair for Products and Equipment in Agriculture, Horticulture,
Viticulture and Animal Husbandry, the biggest agricultural fair in Romania and
one of the biggest in Europe, got under way in Bucharest, with participants
from 25 different countries. Thanks to European and internal funding,
agriculture has seen notable progress, said agriculture minister Achim Irimescu
looking back at the achievements of 2016.
Achim Irimescu: Romania is the second largest producer of corn, the third in terms of sheep
production and among the top four in terms of cereal production in general.
This has been achieved thanks to development sustained by billions worth of
funding. Let’s not forget that we received more than 14.5 billion from the
European Union between 2007 and 2013 and that for the current period,
2014-2020, we are benefiting from 20 billion euro worth of funding, besides the
7 billion we get from the national budget.
According to
minister Irimescu, Romanian agriculture
is a high-performing sector at the level of the European Union and the budget
of the agriculture ministry has grown 11 times since the country joined the
Union. Attending the opening of the agriculture fair, Romania’s president Klaus
Iohannis said he was worried that 30% of the country’s farm land was owned by
foreign nationals and emphasised that the legislation in the field should be
changed. He said the law should at least include pre-emptive rights for the
state or local communities. We are in the European Union. We cannot shut ourselves
in and go back to isolationism, but nothing stops us from passing legislation
that allows Romanians to decide what happens in Romania, Iohannis said.
Indagra also
hosted a forum on financing opportunities for rural development in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, organised by the US Embassy in Romania, the Commercial Service for Southeast Europe and the Romanian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which shows the interest of
American companies in the export of technology and know-how in the field of
agriculture and agribusiness. The participants, including experts and officials
from the finance sector, talked about agriculture and the benefits of rural
development through technology. Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania are the European
Union’s youngest members. Together, they are allocated 15 billion euros worth
of structural funds for rural development by 2020. The three states are
optimally positioned and have a retail market potential of more than 500
million consumers in the European Union, professionals in the field have said.