Romania, back in pork meat export business

The restrictions on pork exports imposed on Romania are going to be eventually lifted. Thus, starting January 1, 2014, Romania will be able to resume the exports to EU countries, according to the President of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), Vladimir Manastireanu, Agerpres informs.

‘It is very important that from January 1, 2014, on there will be allowed to export pork to the Community from all export accredited commercial exploitations. Currently, we have 218 such commercial facilities nationwide, with 1.8 million pigs, out of which 42 already have export accreditation for the Community market. At this point, exports to EU countries comes only from four counties in the West side of the country, namely from Timis, Arad, Caras and Bihor. It is very important for this sector having the export approval for the Community space obtained because it can get returns of over 1 billion euro.’ Manastireanu said, quoted by Agerpes.

The past years place Romania as an import-dependent country, even for assuring the domestic consumption, thus the exports had a limited covering – especially outside EU and being several times smaller than imports. As a confirmation, the statistics provided by the Ministry of Agriculture show that fresh pork meat import is the main component of food products import, mostly coming from Germany, Hungary, Spain or Denmark.

The present situation is mainly due to the restrictions that affected Romania’s pork meat and live pigs exports after the EU has imposed them ever since 2003 following the classical swine fever issues. The last swine fever outbreaks in Romania were reported back in 2007, from the on ANSVSA paying its effort to eradicate the disease through a program worth 7 million euro.