In June 2018, Agroserv Mariuta, an integrated farming company that works 3,500 hectares of land in Ialomita County and has a cattle farm, introduced its own brand on a dairy market dominated by major foreign players like Danone, Lactalis and FrieslandCampina.
Agroserv Mariuta, which manages the Laptaria cu Caimac dairy plant, ended 2018 with almost EUR10 million revenue and 78 employees.
“They don’t grant loans for such business projects but loans for collateral, which covers 100% or 200% or even more if the company is smaller. They don’t grant loans for industrial projects in Romania. Or maybe they do but only to very large companies. If Dacia wants a loan it can easily get it for 15 to 20 years. We can’t. We can only take up to 10-year loans,” Adrian Cocan said on ZF Live.
In the absence of bank funding or due to the pressure banks put on entrepreneurs to repay their loans more and more companies will be closing or will be acquired by foreign entrepreneurs, the manager of the Laptaria cu Caimac said.
“Banks only grant short-term loans. This ruins competitiveness compared with foreign businesses. This is why more and more farms in Romania are now held by French and Dutch investors because they come with access to funding from their countries. (…)”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)