Overview

Agriculture's share of the economy. Agriculture, forestry and fishing produced 3.0% of gross value added in 2025 on provisional data, against 1.8% in the EU-27, and 2.7% of GDP (own calculation)¹⁹. The World Bank puts agricultural value added at US$12.87 billion in 2025². It uses an earlier edition of the national accounts, which gives RON 57.51 billion of value added in 2025 against RON 52.78 billion in the Eurostat release¹⁰. Real value added fell by 23.8% in 2024 and grew by 6.9% in 2025 (provisional)¹. The economic accounts for agriculture estimate the output of the agricultural industry at RON 117.77 billion in 2025, about US$26.3 billion at the year's average exchange rate (own calculation)¹¹⁴.

Holdings and farm managers. The 2023 farm structure survey counted 2,859,360 agricultural holdings, including holdings below the EU survey thresholds, 32.6% of all holdings in the EU-27 (own calculation)⁸¹². 90.2% of them had less than 5 ha of utilised agricultural area, including holdings with none, and used 22.9% of the utilised agricultural area, while the 0.5% with 100 ha or more used 46.6% (own calculations)⁸. Managers aged 65 or over ran 41.7% of holdings¹³. The national accounts counted 17.7% of employed people in agriculture, forestry and fishing in 2025, against 3.8% in the EU-27, while the labour force survey, which since 2021 no longer counts people producing agricultural goods exclusively or mainly for self-consumption, gives 10.0% (own calculation)³¹⁴. 39.8% of the rural population was at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025¹⁵.

Grain exports through the Black Sea. Romania harvested 13.01 million tonnes of wheat in 2025, the highest of the 2010–2025 series and 9.0% of the EU-27 harvest, on Eurostat data at EU standard humidity¹⁶¹⁷. It grew 21.2% of the EU's sunflower seed, the largest share of any member state¹⁷. On Eurostat trade data it exported 7.04 million tonnes of wheat outside the EU in 2025, more than any other member state and 25.8% of the EU-27 total¹⁸. Its wheat exports to all destinations, including other EU members, were 8.49 million tonnes on UN Comtrade data, a net weight that Comtrade flags as estimated¹⁹. The ports administered by CN APM Constanța handled 18.3 million tonnes of cereals in 2025, including transit cargo²⁰. Agri-food exports were US$14.29 billion in 2025 and imports US$16.14 billion, a deficit of US$1.85 billion (own calculation), and other EU-27 members took 57.5% of exports⁷²¹.

Banks, non-banks and EU funds. The Central Credit Register recorded RON 31,961 million of loans granted by banks to borrowers in agriculture, forestry and fishing at the end of August 2026, about US$7.05 billion at the end-August exchange rate⁵⁴. The register counts contract amounts of exposures of RON 20,000 or more, not outstanding balances. The register recorded another RON 19.70 billion of loans granted by non-bank lenders, 38.1% of the combined bank and non-bank amount for the sector (own calculation)²². 9.8% of bank loans to agricultural companies were non-performing in March 2026, against 2.7% in October 2024 and 5.6% for all non-financial companies⁶. EU agricultural funds paid EUR 3.03 billion in Romania in 2025, about US$3.41 billion at the 2025 average rate (own calculation), and the CAP Strategic Plan 2023–2027, as amended in February 2026, allocates EUR 15.83 billion of EU and national funds for the five years (about US$18.4 billion at the end-August 2026 rate, own calculation), a planned amount rather than payments²³²⁴⁴.

Heat, drought and irrigation. The National Meteorological Administration ranks 2024 as the warmest year of 1961–2025 in its 129-station series, with a mean of 11.62 °C²⁵. Agricultural drought affected 17.5% of the territory in 2024 and 30.8% in 2012²⁶. Irrigated land covered 3.5% of the utilised agricultural area in 2023, against 6.5% in the EU-27²⁷²⁸. Agriculture emitted 18.1% of greenhouse gases excluding land use and forestry in 2024, against 11.9% in the EU-27 (own calculations)²⁹.