Minister Irimescu: Brexit impact on food prices in Romania can't be estimated at present

The Brexit impact on the agro- food prices from Romania cannot be estimated at the moment because it was the first time when a state left the EU, says the Agriculture Minister, Achim Irimescu, according to Agerpres.

„It’s hard to say at present. The prime minister said that there might be a global impact on budget of 10 percent. There are estimations that show 6 percent. It’s hard to foresee at present because it’s unclear. It’s for the first time when we confront with this kind of situation, a member state leaving the EU, ” said Irimescu.

He also added that at European and international level Romania confronts with a prices volatility. „For example, if we think of milk industry, during school period there’s an important quantity of milk that gets out of the market and goes to schools through the milk scheme in schools. Of course everybody expected that when the holiday came, a price drop tendency would have registered. The market is hard to be foreseen, where the fluctuations are heading to, because this is the game between demand and supply. The last days I had an intervention that was referring to a long term estimation of the prices evolutions because there are reasons that the European Commission and the Food Agricultural Organization (FAO) emphasized very clear. ”

FAO publishes monthly its own Food Price Index, which measures the prices changes registered by a food basket formed of cereals, vegetable oils, dairies, meat and sugar. In January 2016 this index reached the lowest value of the last seven years, however, afterwards it grew for five consecutive months, reaching in June 2016 a level of 163.4 points.

Georgiana Bendre