RSS
Romania is 9th in the EU as regards the surface of agricultural land cultivated organically
Romania is 9th in the EU as regards the surface of agricultural land organically cultivated, with ecological produce, according to the most recent data published by Eurostat, for 2015.
The first in the top is Spain which grew last year ‘bio’ produce on a surface of 1.4 million ha, followed by France with one million ha and Poland with 500,000 ha of ecological agriculture.
In Romania, the agricultural surface cultivated with ecological produce almost tripled in the last ten years from almost 65,000 ha in 2006 to over 175,000ha last year.
‘Our main issue is connected to the work force which ‘ is completely inexistent’. People prefer to work abroad in agriculture with higher salaries. We have no people, that is why we import. The westerners prefer to take cheap work force from us and give us the raw material’ Marin Dumbrava, manager of the ecological farm Biodumbrava, placed next to Bucharest.
The closeness to Bucharest offers the farmer from Joita the market for his produce, but on the other hand the work force is more expensive than in other areas of the country. Moreover, the majority of the workers in agriculture prefer to work abroad on higher salaries.
According to the minister of agriculture, the term of ecological agriculture is similar to organic or bio agriculture, the ‘bio’ agricultural produce being grown as naturally as possible with no genetically modified organisms, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, growth regulators, hormones and antibiotics.
Compared to the agricultural surface of Romania which is almost 13 million ha, the surface cultivated with ecological produce (175,000 ha) is insignificant, representing under 1%. The ecological produce are a niche produce due to the higher price as compared to the price of ordinary produce.