August 26 2016, 10:34 FreshPlaza

Romania spends 2.6 billion Euro on food imports up to May

Romania imported food worth 2.6 billion Euro from the start of the year to the end of May, according to data submitted by the National Statistics Institute at the request of the National Journal. This entails a monthly expenditure of over 520 million.

Looking specifically at agricultural products, potato imports exceeded 105 million kilograms, apples stood at 76,572 tonnes, with more than half, i.e. 39,765 tonnes, bought from Poland. In Romania, "the [apple] orchards have expanded, but Romanian apples, according to Mr Laurentiu Baciu, president of the League of Associations of Agricultural Producers in Romania, are mostly sold to make brandy. "We have tens of thousands of hectares of apples, but producers are bankrupt and have nowhere to sell their merchandise," he affirms.

The remaining fruit imports are normal, given that they are not grown in the country. Citrus is in fifth position. In the first five months of the year, Romanians purchased more than 126,000 tonnes of oranges, tangerines, grapefruit and lemons. They were brought from Greece, Turkey, Spain and Egypt, but also from Germany, Italy and France. Banana imports totalled 76,820 tonnes and come from France, Belgium and the Netherlands; in other words, imports don't already reach Romania directly.