Romania has a surplus of honey but struggles to sell it due to unfair competition from cheaper imported honey, especially from Ukraine, China, and Moldova, Romania’s beekeeper association, which also pointed to the country’s strong production just a few years ago, has said.
While Romania used to be one of the largest honey producers in the EU, with over 35,000 tons in 2015, it imports over 4,000 tons of honey from outside the EU annually.
“Even though our production was modest, we cannot market our honey because there is unfair competition between what we produce and what comes from non-EU countries, unfortunately, at very low prices”, the president of the Romanian Beekeepers Association (ACA), Ioan Fetea told Agerpres.
“I think that last year more than 4,000 tons of honey were imported, and our exports have been close to zero”, said Fetea, adding that in 2022 the honey production was ”below 50% of the annual average, around 12,000-13,000, maybe 14,000 tons”.
At the same time, the group is also asking for financial support from the €10 million allocated by the EU for the Romanian farmers affected by the imports of cheap cereals from Ukraine.
The Commission proposes to allocate €29.5 million to Poland, €16.75 million to Bulgaria and €10.05 million to Romania to compensate affected farmers for the economic loss due to increased imports of cereals and oilseeds.
According to Fetea, this sum is ”peanuts for Romanian agriculture”.
(Cătălina Mihai | EURACTIV.ro)
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