In 2013, Romania had the best agricultural season of the past 20 years; a miracle which strongly boosted Romania's economy. Unfortunately, however, the miracle has not continued in 2014. This year, Romania's domestic agriculture has been hit by three factors that will certainly have a severe effect on the country's agricultural production. Two of them have to do with the often unpredictable weather conditions.
The first factor is the floods that took place during the first two months of a very rainy summer. Heavy rains in July destroyed almost one-third of the grain harvest and 40-60% of the vegetable crops in the south, as reported by Ion Cioroianu, of the Growers Association of Romania (AFR). He stated that the rains bring more damage than droughts, as they also favoured the emergence and spread of diseases and bacteria.
Another blow were, in fact, droughts, mostly affecting isolated areas in Dobrogea, as well as Muntenia, Moldova, Crisana, Transylvania and Oltenia. The National Meteorological Administration warned in late July that large areas of agricultural land would be affected by moderate or strong droughts, followed by several weeks of hot weather in August.
The third blow received by Romanian agricultural producers is the ban from the Russian Federation on the import of food from the United States and the European Union. With the imposition of the embargo, some people were quick to say that the country would not be affected, since Romania's exports to Russia are very small; however, even if not directly, the problem could hit the country indirectly.
With the ban, the unsold merchandise is redirected to European markets, resulting in lower demand for Romanian food products. Romanian fruits and vegetables are also having difficulties to compete with EU products in the domestic market. Aurel Tanase, head of the National Interprofessional Organisation for Romania's Fruit and Vegetables, Prodcom, said that "while before the restriction 20 trucks of vegetables were going daily to Europe, the figure has been reduced to two or three."
