Authors: Cornelia Alboiu, Alexandra Toderiţă
Romania’s agricultural sector is confronted with major problems related mainly to scarce farmers’ market organization and their slow adaptation to the mechanisms of modern commercialization formats. These formats entail large production volumes of a homogeneous quality, which can only be obtained in the presence of a modern and functional infrastructure – collection centres, greenhouses, deposits, silos. All of these represent investments which, most of the times, surpass the financial capacity of a single farmer, even of a medium size. This reality of the Romanian agri – and commodity market, has however some common causes, identified here, which can be resolved. In this context, the report stresses the contracting issue – with an emphasis on the vegetables – fruit chain.
The authors have undergone a field assessment which included over 300 vegetables producers, with or without legal personality, they discussed with representatives of 25 of the 34 producer groups in this branch, as well as with representatives of four retail chains in Romania.
This report is published under the “Rural Development through Enterpreneurship and Association” program – initiated and funded by RAF and implemented in partnership with PACT, CIVITAS, CSDF, CMSC, CRPE and CEED. The contents of this report do not necessarily represent the official position of the RAF and the consortium members. The opinions expressed do not automatically involve position of all CRPE affiliated experts or other institutions and partner organizations.