Romania: 600 million euro food products trade deficit

Romania imported food products last year worth 6.8 billion euro and exported products worth 6.2 million euro, resulting in a trade deficit of 600 million euro, up 100 million against 2015, declared on Monday, Florentina Dumitru, managing director of The Economics Directorate of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) at a recent agricultural conference.

“We have a growing adverse trade balance as compared to 2015,” said Dumitru.

According to her, last year the export of agri-food products was 6.2 billion euro, up 4.2 percent against 2015. The share of these products’ exports in the overall Romanian exports is 10.7 percent in 2016, compared to the 2015 level.

Imports registered a growth of 12 percent in 2016, reaching a value of 6.8 billion euro, as compared to 6.1 billion euro in 2015. Their share in the country’s overall imports was 10.1 percent, higher than in 2015, when it was 9.6 percent. The main import countries were Hungary (16%), Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Holland, Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Brazil.

The main imported products are: pork, wheat and olives, bakery, chocolate, animal feed, cheese, tobacco, and sugar.

“The balance of trade is in deficit, the balance being 600 million euro, up by 100 million euro as compared to the previous year”, said the INS director. The main countries we have deficits with are Hungary, Germany, Poland, Brazil, Portugal.

Source: www.agerpres.ro / Agroberichten Buitenland