Cucumbers dominate Greek fresh vegetable exports to Romania

The acreage devoted to vegetable cultivation in Romania has tended to decline in recent years, amoun…

The acreage devoted to vegetable cultivation in Romania has tended to decline in recent years, amounting to about 239,000 hectares; nevertheless, the overall production remains relatively stable. In 2014, it amounted to 3.807 million tonnes of vegetables. The two most common products are cabbage and tomatoes. According to available data for the year 2014, the cabbage production amounted to 1.123 million tonnes, while that of tomatoes reached 711,000 tonnes. Other key products were onions (387,000 tonnes) and peppers (229,000 tonnes), while the total production of all other vegetable products stood at 1.357 million tonnes.

In 2015, the value of Romanian vegetable exports amounted to 90.6 million Euro, registering a slight increase of 2.5%, while imports amounted to 274.4 million Euro and grew by 20.6% compared with 2014.

Greek exports to Romania
"Romanian consumers have a good opinion of Greek fruit and vegetables, which they find satisfactory in terms of quality, as well as 'clean' from residues, compared to the products of our competitors," stated Mr Ioannis Markos, Head of the Greek Office for Economic and Commercial Affairs (ECA) in Bucharest.

With regard to the category of fresh vegetables, Greek exports to Romania recorded a marginal increase in 2015 compared to 2014. More specifically, the total value of these exports amounted to 7,452,377 €, up by 4.40% compared with the previous year. The export of fresh vegetables was dominated by cucumbers, whether fresh or refrigerated, whose value reached 3,426,325 €; an increase of 48.54% compared with 2014. Overall, fresh vegetables represent barely 6.97% of all Greek exports of fresh and processed fruit and vegetables.

Preserved vegetables, with over 23% of the total exports, had a value of 25,194,225 € and recorded a 40.22% growth compared with 2014.