The export market for the Romanian unprocessed meat last year went beyond EUR200 million, after in the past decade annual deliveries have increased almost 16 times. In the past 4 years, the segment has boomed as the value of contracts rose by two thirds.
Two thirds of the market is currently covered by poultry deliveries, while the rest is divided between pork, beef, mutton and other segments.
“This can be explained by the fact that poultry production in Romania has not declined in recent years, but domestic consumption has, which has left free room for exports. The price of meat produced domestically is competitive on the European market irrespective of VAT gaps between countries,” explains Grigore Horoi, president of Agricola Bacau, a group with revenue of EUR133 million last year and a top ten meat exporter.
Romanian exporters are now making the first firmer inroads into foreign markets considering that in late 2013 Romanian companies’ receipts from unprocessed meat exports accounted for less than 1% in the entire European market of such exports.
In 2013, Romania ranked 15th among the EU’s biggest exporters of unprocessed meat.
Romanian meat exports are totally dependent on EU market demand as only 6% of the total is generated by business outside the bloc.
Romania is the ninth largest poultry producer in the EU, ranks 20th by pork and 21th by beef, according to Eurostat data.
One of the drivers of the meat export market last year was the pork segment, accounting for 13% in total meat exports. The segment is dominated by Smithfield, which owns the highest number of pigs in Romania. The company’s deliveries in 2013 revolved around EUR29 million.
The 2013 ranking of the 20 largest exporters of unprocessed meat includes Avicola Crevedia (owned by Rami Ghaziri), Agroli Distribution (Rami Ghaziri), Avicarvil (Iustin Paraschiv) and Maria Trading (Jihad El-Khalil).
The owners of these companies have lately been involved in corruption scandals, being accused of fiscal irregularities.
Romania’s animal farming in 2013 reached EUR3.9 billion, up 8.3% from 2012.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)