Value chains & market institutions

Wheat and oilseeds. Romania harvested 13.01 million tonnes of wheat in 2025, against 9.29 million tonnes in 2024, and the Eurostat dataset updated on 28 September 2026 records 13.12 million tonnes for 2026¹. Wheat exports to all destinations reached 8.49 million tonnes worth US$2.09 billion in 2025 on UN Comtrade data, a net weight that Comtrade flags as estimated, and cereal exports as a whole (HS 10) US$3.48 billion, against US$4.59 billion in 2022². Saudi Arabia bought 18.6% of the wheat by value, Egypt 9.6%, Jordan 9.0% and Italy 8.9%, while EU-27 countries took 18.3% of wheat and 24.8% of cereal exports (own calculations)³. Exports outside the EU, on Eurostat Comext data, were 7.04 million tonnes of wheat⁴. Maize exports were 1.90 million tonnes in 2025 against 5.35 million tonnes in 2023, and rapeseed exports earned US$1.40 billion in 2025⁵².

The port of Constanța. The ports administered by CN APM Constanța handled 18.3 million tonnes of cereals in 2025, 27.1% of their total traffic (own calculation), after 36.2 million tonnes in 2023, the highest of the 2017–2025 series, when oilseed traffic also reached 9.28 million tonnes⁶. Total traffic in 2023 was 92.7 million tonnes, the highest in the port's history, which the port authority's general manager described as influenced also by the new geopolitical context at the Black Sea⁷. Transit of all goods rose from 15.3 million tonnes in 2019 to 40.1 million tonnes in 2023⁷. The port statistics do not separate Romanian grain from transit cargo, and no current national figure on grain storage capacity could be verified.

Food industry. In 2024 Romania had 13,414 food manufacturers and 1,697 beverage manufacturers, which employed 197,013 persons (own sum) and had net turnover of EUR 21.5 billion, about US$23.3 billion at the IMF 2024 average rate (own calculation)⁸¹⁰. Food products accounted for 12.6% of manufacturing turnover and 16.3% of manufacturing employment⁸. Meat processing had the highest turnover, EUR 5.47 billion, and bakery the highest employment, 76,384 persons¹¹. Value added per person employed in food manufacturing was EUR 18.8 thousand, against EUR 61.2 thousand in the EU-27, and Romania accounted for 4.0% of persons employed but 1.3% of turnover in EU food manufacturing (own calculations)⁸¹².

Dairy. Farms produced 3.72 million tonnes of cows' milk in 2024, and 1.26 million tonnes (provisional), 33.8% of cows' milk production, were delivered to dairies, against 23.0% in 2015 (own calculations)¹³¹⁴. Counting the raw milk of all species, 28.9% was delivered to dairies in 2024 (own calculation)¹⁵. Dairies made 374.9 thousand tonnes of drinking milk and 102.3 thousand tonnes of cows' milk cheese in 2024, according to provisional data¹⁴.

Producer organisations. The European Commission's list of recognised entities, last updated in October 2025, records 22 producer organisations in Romania, all in fruit and vegetables and 18 of them recognised in 2015–2017, and no Romanian association of producer organisations or interbranch organisation (own count)¹⁶. Bulgaria had 21 entries on the same list, Hungary 70 and Poland 133¹⁶. Recognised producer organisations may negotiate jointly for their members under an exception from competition rules and may receive EU funding through operational programmes¹⁷.

Cooperatives. The national register of agricultural cooperatives, compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture from trade register data in September 2020, lists 1,696 cooperatives, of which 1,485 were in operation¹⁸. Registrations peaked at 280 in 2018. The 673 cooperatives that filed 2019 accounts reported combined turnover of RON 1.62 billion, about US$383 million at the 2019 average rate (own calculations)¹⁸¹⁰. No later edition of the register could be opened. The EU directive on unfair trading practices in the agri-food chain, adopted on 17 April 2019, bans 16 practices such as payment later than 30 days for perishable products, and Member States had to transpose it by 1 May 2021¹⁹. The Romanian transposing act is covered in the policy section.

Organic farming and geographical indications. Organic farmland grew from 226,309 ha in 2016 to 781,397 ha in 2024, 6.16% of the utilised agricultural area, of which 555,032 ha fully converted⁹. In 2020 the share was 3.59%, against an estimated 9.1% in the EU-27²⁰. Registered organic operators numbered 15,330 at the end of 2024, including 14,643 agricultural producers and 275 processors²¹. In October 2026 the EU register listed 79 Romanian geographical indications, namely 54 for wine, 16 for agricultural products and foodstuffs such as Telemea de Ibăneşti and Magiun de prune Topoloveni, and 9 for spirit drinks such as Pălincă (own count)²².

Food prices. Consumer prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 16.4% in 2022 and 14.6% in 2023, against 11.9% and 12.6% in the EU-27, then by 2.9% in 2024 and 6.8% in 2025²⁴. On the monthly series of ECOICOP version 2, the annual rate reached 9.1% in August 2025 and was 8.0% in February 2026 and 2.6% in September 2026, when all-items inflation was 6.5% and food inflation in the EU-27 0.6%²⁵. Households spent 25.0% of their consumption on food and non-alcoholic beverages in 2022, against 13.6% in the EU-27²⁶.

Access to food. In 2025, 18.1% of the population could not afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every second day, against 8.5% in the EU-27, and 35.8% of people with less than 60% of median equivalised income²⁷. The share was 23.3% in 2023 and 14.2% in 2019²⁷.