Agricultural cooperatives can become a pillar of Romanian agriculture, especially for the so-called “middle agriculture”: medium-sized commercial family farms, capable of being economically efficient and remaining connected to rural communities. However, after Romania’s accession to the EU (2007), this segment has had a slow and fragmented evolution. Romanian agriculture remains highly polarized: over 75% of farms have less than 5 ha, over 95% are registered as natural persons, while large farms control most of the land.
Cooperatives can aggregate the resources of small and medium farms, increasing members’ incomes, facilitating access to markets, short supply chains, and collective bargaining with large retail networks. In addition, they offer a sustainable development solution, strengthening the resilience of rural communities and contributing to socio-economic balance. Nevertheless, many cooperatives are inactive or created strictly to benefit from EU funds and tax exemptions, without real economic activity.
Challenges of access to financing for cooperatives
The perspective of financial institutions
Romanian agriculture has the largest financing gap in the EU (2022). In France or Denmark, almost 50% of farmers accessed credit; in Romania, less than 5% (fi-compass study, 2020). Cooperatives are perceived as unstable structures, without bankable assets and with high member fluctuation.
The average capitalization rate of cooperatives is 7.9%, which indicates extremely low financial autonomy. Although there are instruments such as FGCR guarantees, EIF subsidized loans, or “blended” instruments, these are used mostly by individual farmers, not by cooperatives. The number of loans actually granted to cooperatives remains “in the dozens.”
Financing needs
The 2025 CRPE study showed a rather fragile picture of the sector. Out of more than 400 calls to cooperatives, many were inactive or difficult to contact, a sign that an important part exists only on paper. Among the 50 cooperatives that responded, half sustain their activity through reinvestment of profit, almost as many through members’ contributions, and 40% accessed European funds. In contrast, relations with banks remain timid: only a quarter managed to obtain loans, and non-bank financial institutions financed even fewer.
The problems seem to be the same for everyone: excessive bureaucracy, high credit costs, lack of real guarantees, and requirements considered excessive, sometimes even up to 250% of the loan value. This creates a blockage: cooperatives cannot borrow for investments because they lack assets, but neither can they accumulate assets because they lack access to financing. Nevertheless, the desire for development exists. Most want new equipment, storage facilities, and marketing investments. Regarding loans, they prefer long terms and grace periods, adapted to agricultural cycles. The fact that these investments target common infrastructure and modern technologies shows that, if supported, cooperatives could become the engine of sustainable local agriculture.
Recommendations for supporting agricultural cooperatives
For the establishment of new agricultural cooperatives and to stimulate farmers’ association:
- Maintaining the tax facilities from Agricultural Cooperation Law no. 566/2004, which the government has proposed to eliminate.
- The next National Strategic Plan for agriculture post-2027 must support the establishment of new agricultural cooperatives through community facilitation, counseling, the creation of a business plan, and know-how support in the start-up period.
For the consolidation of existing cooperatives:
- It is necessary to finance in the next National Strategic Plan for agriculture post-2027 a technical assistance program for cooperatives – National Fund for the Consolidation of Agricultural Cooperatives: grants for working capital + micro-investments with assistance for feasibility studies and the development of collective business plans + a mandatory mentoring component for young cooperatives.
- Additional scoring for investment measures and the configuration of an investment measure with a budget dedicated exclusively to agricultural cooperatives in the future NSP.
- Completing the list of eligible beneficiaries in the National Program for the Development and Support of the Food Industry INVESTALIM for the period 2023-2026, the modalities of granting, the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the investment, with agricultural cooperatives and prioritizing them for access in future project sessions.
- It is necessary to adapt financial products and guarantees to the collective business model. We propose adopting good European practices – examples such as COOPFIN in Italy (micro-credits without classic guarantees and coaching for small cooperatives) or SIAGI in France (public mutual guarantees for cooperatives).
- It is necessary to create a classification system for active cooperatives.
- Economic and social performance of cooperatives must be encouraged, as well as association into third-level cooperatives that can make strategic investments at regional and national level.
You can find the full report here.