Agriculture is important for Romania 's economy and the subsistence of a large part of its population. It suffers from a lack of infrastructure such as the availability of warehouses, port facilities, roads and rail transportation. Despite the role of agriculture in the Romanian economy, exports of agricultural products remain relatively low. This was the result of the structural problems at the supply side: uneconomic size of land holdings, lack of an efficient system of purchase and distribution of foodstuffs, poor financial resources for supporting the agricultural production, etc. Nevertheless, Romania is competitive in some crops, such as wheat, sunflower, corn and wine.

About 40 percent of the total area of Romania is used for pasturage and cultivation, which in the early 1990s employed about 28 percent of the labor force. Almost 90 percent of the land was worked as collective farms in the mid-1980s. Because of government emphasis on industrial development, agricultural improvements and investments were neglected, and food shortages developed in the 1980s. A new government decollectivization program had returned 46 percent of the agricultural land to original owners or their heirs by 1994.

The principal crops include corn, wheat and rye, sugar beets, potatoes, grapes, and a wide range of other fruits. Its extensive vineyards make Romania a major wine producer.

 

Related articles

Economics sectors in Romania

 

To go further

fao.org/... - Romania country profile, from the FAO