Romania’s nine-month exports amount to EUR113 million and account for 50% of the EU exports market. If the pace of the first three quarters is kept, revenues will reach EUR150 million at the end of the year, according to ZF estimates based on Eurostat data.
Romania has the fourth-largest number of sheep in the EU, 8.8 million heads in total, with around 15% to be exported this year.
“We are exporting around 10,000 sheep [this year]. We send the livestock abroad through quarantine farms, but starting next year we will make direct exports. Sheep going abroad are exported for meat,” explains Dumitru Andresoi, one of the biggest local owners of sheep, with 30,000 heads. He collects EUR1 million from sheep exports alone.
For Romanian farmers, sheep exports are one of the main profit drivers for their business because exports target older female sheep, which produce less milk, and young rams.
Older ewes and young rams do not generate cash flow for sheep farmers because the steady stream of revenues comes from selling milk.
“For exports payments are made upfront, otherwise it is very risky. The average price is EUR2,500 per ton of live animal (EUR100 per 40-kilo animal). When large numbers are exported, the profit margin is up to 15%,” Andresoi also says.
He adds that the biggest profit margins are recorded by the end acquirers, which only order live sheep from Romania. The sheep are then sent to slaughterhouses in the countries of destination.
Romanian sheep are transported to quarantine farms, then on to Romanian ports and shipped by sea.
92% of Romania’s sheep exports target five destinations: Libya, Jordan, Greece, Bulgaria and Lebanon.
Most orders in the first nine months of this year came from Lebanon, a country to which Romania sold sheep of EUR62 million, 54% of the total value of exports.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)