For 2023, KeysFin analysts estimate a continued growth of the sector, thus exceeding the record level reached in 2022, close to RON80 billion threshold, based on the persistence of inflationary pressures and the estimated increase in annual crop production of 24%, the third largest annual advance among member states as forecast by the General Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Development from the European Commission this year.
“Although for 2023 we estimate the continuation of the sector growth, we point to the need to prioritize investments in infrastructure and modernization of this sector, so that Romania remains a net exporter of agricultural products*, after in the year of the pandemic it became a net importer for the first time in the last 10 years. As a strategic direction, we should follow the example of Poland, namely, to invest in processing, so that in the long term we have a positive balance of international trade with agri-food products, which has a higher added value“, said Diana Florescu, economic analyst KeysFin, one of the most important providers of business information solutions in Romania.
The ranking of the top largest agricultural companies in Romania lists REGIA NATIONALA A PADURILOR ROMSILVA which kept its top spot in 2022, after the largest annual nominal increase in top 20, of RON831 million, to RON3.1 billion (4.6% of the total). PROMAT COMIMPEX SRL, with RON1.65 billion turnover, and AGRO-CHIRNOGI SA, with RON1.6 billion turnover in 2022, placed second and third, respectively. The largest annual percentage advances in top 20 of 185% and 136%, respectively, were recorded by EUROSEMAGRO COMPANY SRL and AGROPEC DIONIS SRL, companies that also recorded the largest increases in top 20, up 25 and 15 positions, respectively.
According to KeysFin specialists, the number of companies that reported their financial results in 2022 remained close to that of the previous year, namely 26.5 thousand companies (based on data extracted in September 2023). The net result increased by 13% compared to 2021 and was 131% above that of 2018, to a record high of over RON9.2 billion in 2022.
As a direct impact of the transmission of inflationary pressures, the value of crop production in the European Union (EU) increased by 15% in 2022 compared to the previous year, despite a decrease in harvested volumes according to Eurostat data: grain maize (-29%), sunflower (-11%), soybeans (-8.1%) and wheat (-3.1%), rape being among the few crops seeing an annual advance (+14.5%).
Romania had the second lowest increase in the value of crop production in the EU, of 1.1% and dropped to the 7th place in the EU, with 5.3% of the total, being surpassed by the Netherlands which recorded 5.7% of total in 2022.
When it comes to wheat production at the EU level, Romania kept its 4th spot, with 6.5% of the total and a harvest of 8.7 million tons in 2022. Romania continued to be leader by the cultivated area of corn among the EU Member States, but with an annual 8 million tons production came in third, after France and Poland. In addition, Romania was the second largest sunflower producer in the EU, with a harvest of 2.1 million tons in 2022.
The value of international agricultural trade (exports plus imports) increased by 30% compared to 2021 and was 82% above the 2018 level, to euro 16.3 billion in 2022, according to data from Romania’s National Institute of Statistics.
In 2022, Romania remained a net exporter of agricultural products after being a net importer in the pandemic year for the first time since 2010, seeing an agricultural trade surplus (exports minus imports of products from Sections I, II and III of the Combined Nomenclature) of EUR800 million, 28% below the level recorded in 2021.
KeysFin’s Romanian Agricultural Sector study covers all companies that reported their annual results to the finance ministry and had as core business one of the following groups: plant and animal husbandry, Fisheries and Forestry.