Romania lost EUR 1 bln by not cultivating genetically modified soybean, says official

Newsroom 19/09/2013 | 14:35

Over the past 7 years Romania has lost over EUR 1 billion by not cultivating genetically modified soybean and instead importing it for fodder, said Valeriu Steriu, president of the presidential commission for public and agriculture development policies this Thursday, according to Agerpres news agency.

He said Romania should convince Brussels to be allowed to cultivate genetically modified soybean, “not necessarily for human use, but for fodder and other uses.” He added that each year Romania imports genetically modified soybeans worth EUR 150 million when it could produce soybean worth more than EUR 200 million and export the surplus.

At the beginning of the year Romania was the 9^th country to sign the “Danube soya declaration” out of 17 other countries located along the Danube. The declaration is meant to promote the cultivation of genetically unmodified soybean in these 17 countries.

The other countries which have signed the declaration so far are Austria, Italy, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Poland.

EU countries import each year about 40 million tonnes of genetically modified products. Romania imports over 500,000 tonnes which are mostly corn and soybeans. About 97 percent of these genetically modified products are used as fodder. Last year Romania produced 98,000 tonnes of soybeans on 77,000 hectares.