Along the route between Romanian farmers and consumers, mark-ups appear that raise many questions, and because of these mechanisms, Romanian farms are closing while Romanians are paying increasingly more for food, Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu argued, requesting the Competition Council to investigate this situation.
"Why are Romanian farmers forced to sell their production to offshore companies in Cyprus in order to access the supermarket market of Romania? The Competition Council must investigate urgently! I have spoken with farmers, analysed data and visited stores. I went into a supermarket of a major German retailer. On the shelves, I found a lot of pork from Spain - nearly at the expiration date - and very little Romanian pork, at higher prices than imported meat. Today, at the farm gate, pork is sold for approximately 4.3 lei/kg, while in the supermarket the meat costs on average between 20 and 28 lei," the minister wrote on his Facebook page.
He underscored that farmers are forced either to sell below production cost or to close their farms, while consumers are paying increasingly more for imported meat.
"Along the route between the Romanian farmer and the consumer, mark-ups appear that raise many questions. Because of these mechanisms, Romanian farms are closing, and Romanians are paying increasingly more for food. That is why I call on the Competition Council to investigate who is profiting from this chain and why Romanian farmers and consumers have to pay such high prices!," Barbu wrote.
He also pointed to the example of the situation in the poultry section, where he discovered that over 60 percent of products are labeled under a single brand - Gustavi - owned by a company established in 2024 with five employees, which in turn is owned by an offshore company in Cyprus.
"Such companies only trade products from major Romanian producers. In other words, products from Romanian companies like Avicola Crevedia, Coco Rico, Morandi, Avicola Focsani or EuroAvi, with hundreds of employees and real production, which do not have access to the shelves. How does a company from Cyprus end up filling supermarket shelves in Romania with products made by our producers? I have said it before and I repeat it: the Agriculture Ministry has no control powers, but it will get involved together with the Competition Council and all other authorities in order to stop these unfair commercial practices!,' the Agriculture Minister added.
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