We believe that when every local farmer has a successful business, agriculture will grow in Romania. Together we bring inspiration for change within the agriculture sector. Our plan is to develop replicable models based on local specificity and cooperation.
The demand grows faster than the offer.
The retail is ready to distribute.
The financial sector is ready to support.
The state is ready to facilitate.
Everyone expects this new species of business models. Models designed to produce efficiently good food.
This is why FDA was founded.
There are major blockers preventing manufacturers to evolve from survivors to developers. These are property fragmentation, low investment power in modern technologies or lack of infrastructure such as: adequate storage or distribution, chronic crisis of qualified human resources, low professional literacy and problems accessing funding.
The critical point of the sector is at the intersection of system imbalances and cultural barriers. When looking at imbalances, the dependence on EU funds as a source of funding for the development of small producers and the imports of vegetables affecting the local market are worth mentioning. Regarding cultural barriers, we can observe the trauma of CAP-ist communism and lack of confidence in the idea of cooperation that also comes from different thoughts/reference systems between generations of farmers.
The APIA subsidy system favours strong producers of large crops, but offers little help to small producers of fresh products.
1. Atomized (fragmented) and polarized agriculture
- 0.4% of farmers work 48% of the agricultural area
- 72% of farmers work 12% of the agricultural area (are in the subsidence area)
România 2016
Source: EUROSTAT 2016
| Number of farms | Surface (ha) | ||||
| 2016 | Total | 3,422,030 | % | 12,502,540 | % |
| 2016 | Less than 2 ha | 2,480,770 | 72.5% | 1,539,790 | 12.3% |
| 2016 | From 2 to 9.9 ha | 854,200 | 25.0% | 3,352,980 | 26.8% |
| 2016 | From 10 to 99.9 ha | 74,740 | 2.2% | 1,636,320 | 13.1% |
| 2016 | 100 ha or over | 12,310 | 0.4% | 5,973,450 | 47.8% |
România 2013
Source: EUROSTAT 2016
| Training | # of Farm Mnagers | % |
| Basic | 113,750 | 3.13% |
| practical | 3,498,870 | 96.40% |
| Full | 17,040 | 0.47% |
| Total | 3,629,660 |
2. Very low level of education for farmers
- 96% of farmers do agriculture-based only on practical experience
- Only 3% have a specialized average education
- Numai 0,4% au studii universitare
Farm number and Utilised Agricultural Area
Land Area for Vegetable
- Italy
- Spain
- France
- Poland
- Romania
- Others
- Italy
- Spain
- France
- Poland
- Romania
- Others
Vegetable sector, country-wide context (various sources: Eurostat, INS, MADR, etc.)
- Trend of decrease in areas cultivated with vegetables (from 268 thousand ha in 2008 to 228 thousand ha in 2016)
- Only 1% organically grown vegetables*
- Se cultiva legume în spații protejate (în principal solarii, foarte puține sere) doar pe 7% din suprafață, restul se cultivă în câmp sau grădini
Major challenges of small farmers:
- Limited access to
- market
- know-how
- financing (both public and private)
- Low equity
Number of Vegetable Holdings
- Romania
- Poland
- Spain
- Italy
- Lithuania
- Others
- Romania
- Poland
- Spain
- Italy
- Lithuania
- Others
Tomato
- Spain
- Poland
- Italy
- Netherlands
- France
- Others
- Spain
- Poland
- Italy
- Netherlands
- France
- Others