Romania exported agricultural products worth EUR 1.2 bln, in the first 5 months of 2011

Newsroom 16/08/2011 | 13:52

Romania’s export of agricultural products in intra and extra EU countries gained 55 percent, in the first 5 months of 2011, exceeding EUR 1.19 billion, according to Agerpres newswire, that quotes official data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR). In the first 5 months of 2010, exports of agriculture products totaled EUR 770 million. Imports have also increased by 22 percent, from EUR 1.5 billion in the first 5 months of 2010, to EUR 1.8 billion.

Exports
The bulk of export revenues came from maize, tobacco products and sunflower seeds. Romania exported 665.349 tones of maize for EUR 206 million. In the first 5 months of 2010, a similar quantity of maize was exported, but only EUR 111 million was obtained. The global price for maize increased from 190 dollar per tone to over 270 dollar per tone, which might explain the doubling revenues for Romanian exports of this product.

Tobacco products in quantity of 10.464 tons were exported for EUR 174 million. In addition, exports of sunflower seeds reached 305.711 tons, for which EUR 158 million were obtained, in the first five months of 2011. In the similar period of 2010, EUR 41.5 million were obtained from the export of 103.326 tons of sunflower seeds.

Imports
In the first 5 months of 2011, the main imports for the Romanian market consisted of meat products and cereals.
Imports of sugar from cane or beets totaled 181.790 tons, with a market value of EUR 102 million, followed by 167.269 tons of sunflower seeds worth EUR 98 million. Maize imports totaled 222.654 tons for EUR 73 million, while pork meat imports reached 59.466 tons, worth EUR 92.5 million. Wheat imports reached 222.468 tons worth EUR 59 million, while other food products’ imports reached EUR 59 million.

Valeriu Tabara, minister of Agriculture, hopes that Romania will renter the European fruit and vegetables market, as it was the case in the 70’s and 80’s.