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Agriculture : Foreigners remove nearly 800 hectares from agricultural use in Timis County, in 2011
Foreign nationals, who bought farmland in the County of Timis (western part of the country), have removed from agricultural use, in 2011, about 800 hectares of a total of almost 42,000 hectares they own, with real estate business the new destination.
Among those who bought agricultural land in Timis, Italians remain the most active, with 135 owners, followed by 52 Germans, 10 Americans, nine Spaniards, eight Belgians and seven Austrians.
'The surface removed from agricultural use in 2011 was over 786 hectares (7,860,338 square meters). However, it is worth mentioning that uncultivated land surface was reduced to almost half, last year, compared to 2010, respectively, the decrease was from 102,299 hectares, in 2010, to 67,616 hectares last year ', Tiberiu Lelescu, Director of Timis Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, told Agerpres.
Arable surface of Timis County is over 530,000 hectares, and nearly 800,000 hectares represent farmland, with about 119,000 hectares of forests and 15,774 hectares of water surface.
Foreigners' increasing interest in the arable land, in Romania, is generated not so much by the desire to develop here livestock farms or crops, but especially the low price per hectare, between 1,500 and 2,000 euros, with 4,000 to 5,000 euros the highest, for surfaces included in the 1st quality class, while in the remainder EU space the hectare is reaching to even 15,000 euros.
In the last three years, 40 percent of foreign investments in Timis have been made in agriculture and in the purchase of land, considered the safest. Genuine Romanian farmers' disappointment is that, although the land in Timis is one of the most fertile in the country, the cultivated surface decreases and malls, office buildings or supermarkets are springing instead of crops.