Agriculture: KeysFin: Agriculture to shrink by 15% this year

The turnover of Romanian agriculture companies will decrease by about 15% in the current year, according to KeysFin specialists' estimates.The drought and the lack of infrastructure investments may have led to decreases in the turnover of the companies that operate in agriculture, from almost RON 46 billion (EUR 10 bln) in 2019 to some RON 39 bln (EUR 8 bln) in 2020.

"This is the first year when the news is not good: we can only warn about the sharp decline in both turnover and profitability. More investments in infrastructure and the modernization of this sector would make Romanian agriculture less weather-sensitive," said Roxana Popescu, managing director of KeysFin.

State-owned forest management company Romsilva leads the ranking of the biggest companies in the sector in 2019, although its turnover dropped from RON 2.3 bln (5.3% of the total) in 2018 to RON 2 bln in 2019 (4.5% of the total).

Grain trader Promat Comimpex, controlled by local businessman Cristian Moldovan and global trader Ameropa, was second with a turnover of RON 775 mln (EUR 160 mln) and Agro-Chirnogi, one of the biggest farmland operators in the country, part of a group controlled by Lebanese businessman Jihad El Khalil, came third, with RON 662 mln (EUR 136.5 mln).

The top 10 players in agriculture achieved a total turnover of RON 6.2 billion (EUR 1.28 bln) or 13.6% of the sector's total turnover in 2019.

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