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Agriculture: Number of Romanian certified organic farmers could reach 20,000 in 2012
The number of certified organic farmers in Romania could reach 20,000 in 2012, according to estimates by Chairman of the Bio Romania Association of Organic Farm Operators Marian Cioceanu.
'This is the last month that farmers can register as organic farmers. The end of the month is the deadline for applicants to register as such with the Agricultural Department and the information so far indicates that there could be 20,000 such farmers this year,' Cioceanu said Wednesday in Thessalonica, Greece.
He added that 2011 was a remarkable year for Romania's ecological agriculture.
'I think Romania is number one in the world in terms of the increase in the number of certified organic farmers registered with the Agriculture Ministry. The rise percentage is 300 percent. We hope the number to double in 2012, which in absolute terms would exceed the 2011's performance, from 7,000 organic farms to 10,000 this year,' said Cioceanu.
He told a conference in Thessalonica on organic farming as a divine sense of agriculture that the number of organic products tripled over the past two years, to 10,000, from an initial 3,300, a reason why the European Union is granting assistance.
'We managed to repair the legislative and strategic framework for organic farming in Romania in 2010. When Romania joined the European Union back in 2007, it was the only EU member state without state subsidies for organic farming, but in 2008 we managed to determine the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to earmark subsidies in 2010 for small framers switching from conventional to organic farming, and we were glad to see that in 2011 we become number one in the world, with a tripling of the number of organic farming operators. From 3,300 certified farmers we reached 10,000,but, since the subsidies were for small farmers, the tripling is due to such farmers,' Cioceanu explained.