State ‘can not prevent food prices increases’

The state can not intervene in limiting the hike in food prices, but they can only support the local production, said the Agriculture Minister, who on Thursday rejected again the theory of a food crisis in Romania.

Valeriu Tabără however admitted that we are going through a crisis of the purchasing power and that substantial price drops are not expected in the near future, despite the optimistic expectations for this year’s production.

Although there are expected good harvest of potatoes, for example, the tendencies of prices hikes will not moderate, said Minister of camp, which, however, excludes food supply difficulties in Romania and Europe.

There is no danger. If this agricultural production would be boosted this time, I think it would be increased by at least 30-40 percent of a first shock.

‘Moreover, Europe was confronted with evidence of overproduction, but there are no problems. There are extraordinary resources in Central and Eastern European countries which have not been exploited.’

‘Think of our corn yields that are half of those made in ​​France, however, we were on the second place in Europe after France’, Valeriu Tabără said.

The minister added that there are large supplies worldwide ‘will not cause problems for many years in this competition, use, industrial raw material and bioenergy.

Farmers complain about reluctance of credit institutions

The statements of Minister Valeriu Tabără were made at a debate on agricultural loans, where the attendants insisted on the banks need to support the business development of the farmers.

The reluctance of the lending institutions in financing such projects was in the past three years the main reason of which a project worth 32 million euros did not meet the eligibility requirements for the European funds.

‘In all the discussions with the banks, we’ve had, I positively appreciated the top interventions of the top banking management in its entirety, in Romania, the success that banks had in rural areas, declarative, at a high level but when you get on the field, you are doomed.

‘Together with the Romanian Banking Institute, we began a training course for people working in banks, because, as the NRB governor was saying, many of them are not able to understand an application, nor can understand the elements that in our country within the National Rural Development Program, are the goal we set for achievement.

‘I see strictly see the bankability of this project, but nonetheless, we are a rural sector and rural credit must be something else in planning the banks and guarantee funds, than in industry or in commerce’, the Deputy Director of the General of Agency Finance and Rural Development, Octavian Ciprian Alic, said.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu

MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University