Romania posts agri-foodstuff trade surplus for first time in nearly 20 years

Romania has for the first time in nearly 20 years posted surplus in the trade in agri-foodstuffs, recording more than 3 million euros surplus in the nine months of the year.

'Romania has not posted a plus in the agri-foodstuff trade since 1994 and we now already have 3.2 million euros in surplus in nine months. I think we will end 2013 on a plus, given that the current figures relate only three quarters of the year. We have managed to get almost 3.51 billion euros from the exports of agri-foodstuffs by the end of September', Agriculture Minister Daniel Constantin explained.

According to figures supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Romania shipped over 8.1 million tons of agri-foodstuffs to countries both inside—and outside the European Union over this Jan.-Sept., up by 36 percent from the same period a year ago. The money won from such exports totalled 3.509 billion euros, up from 2.882 billion euros over last Jan.-Sept.

Grain exports have increasingly become profitable for Romania over the last years, with wheat, sunflower seeds and Romanian corn further being some of the most-in-demand agricultural products in the foreign market. Romanian grain shipments accounted for a combined 40 percent of the nine-month earnings this year.

The EU was Romania's main agricultural trade partner, both in terms of the deliveries of agri-foodstuffs to the EU market and by the purchases from the EU members.