El transformador

From this perspective, Romania could have a series of advantages, by restructuring the agricultural area, increasing areas cultivated with vegetables and fruit orchards. Fruit growing is a domain of “agricultural resources”, which throughout the

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natural and directed interaction has a result the obtaining of new sorts of agricultural products – namely fruit – important for people’s nutritional needs. (Urs, I.F., 2005:303).

The evolution of both the cultivated areas and the agricultural production was marked by Romania’s integration into the EU in 2007. In order to better capture the dynamics of vegetables and fruits production we have chosen to do an analysis of the period following the EU integration. From this perspective, the analyzed period is the one of the years 2007-2011. Although Romania has a significant agricultural potential, in the analyzed period, the agricultural production had a differentiated evolution due to the climatic conditions, the specific agricultural work and the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

According to data provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (www.dce.gov.ro), the place Romania occupies on the European fruit and vegetables market, both in terms cultivated areas and the obtained production is represented in the next table:

Table 2. Romania’s rank on the European fruits and vegetables market

From the cultivated area perspective

Category Rank Share %

2007 2008 2009 2010 2008 2009 2010

Potatoes 6 6 6 6 4,1 4,1 4,0

Vegetable 5 5 5 5 6,1 6,2 6,2

Fruits 9 8 8 7 4,3 4,1 4,4

From the obtained production perspective

Category Rank Share %

Potatoes 9 9 9 10 3,0 3,2 3,2

Vegetable 8 8 8 8 4,1 4,0 4,2

Fruits 11 8 8 8 3,1 3,3 3,1

Source: authors’ own processing

There could be observed a slight oscillation both in terms of the cultivated area and the obtained production, aspect that could be explained by market conditions. In such a context, the economical and social importance of fruit growing can take into consideration the following aspects: raw materials for the processing industry, increasing the fruit exportation, efficient use of some fields as compared to other agricultural products, contribution to the development of Romania villages, fruit processing. (Urs, I.F., 2005:303).

At the national level there could be observed a change in the surface occupied with potatoes and vegetables, and in the one of fruit orchards. In the following table is presented the evolution of the surfaces and their share in the total agricultural area.

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Table 3. The evolution of the surface cultivated with vegetables and fruit orchards

Cultivated surface (thousands ha) and share in the total agricultural surface 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Specification th. ha % th. ha % th. ha % th. ha % th. ha % Potatoes 268,1 2 255,3 2 255,2 2 241,3 2 243 2 Vegetables 253,4 2 268,6 2 267,1 2 262,7 2 258 2 Orchards and strawberry nurses + watermelons and melons 190,0 1 181,3 1 181,0 1 179,2 1 177,7 1

Source: authors’ own processing

From the above table data it could be observed that the area cultivated with potato but also with orchards, strawberry nurses, melons and watermelons has suffered a continuous decrease. Meanwhile the surface cultivated with vegetables has increased in 2008 compared to 2007, after which again could be observed a downward trend like in the others categories case. Despite the reduction of the cultivated area, production has shown some fluctuations from year to year, but on an upward trend background, meaning that:

• the production of potatoes had increased by 10.8% in 2011 compared to 2007 at the same time with the diminution of the area by 9% ;

• fruits production had increased by 22% over the same time period along with a area reduction of 6%.

This situation could be explained through the increase of the outputs per hectare, increase caused by the use of new varieties (kinds) and production technologies but also by the climatic conditions of each year.

The vegetables production has increased in 2011 by 31.4% compared to 2007, even though the cultivated area has recorded just a slight increase (+1.8%). This trend could be explained by the increase in outputs per ha (more performing varieties, extremely favorable weather conditions, the introduction of new technologies).

As an EU member state, Romania is subject to the Community rules and the provision of fruit and vegetables is made both by own sources and imports. The productive potential of Romania allows, besides satisfying its own needs, to obtain quantities that can be exported. All these aspects are likely to boost local producers to develop the fruits and vegetables sector. Although the offers of products are diverse, the added value of products is small, especially due to:

• lack of marketing knowledge involving preparation methods for commercial production (sorting, grading) and presentation (packaging and labeling) meant to ensure the safety and attractiveness of the product to the consumer;

• lack of technical means of washing, sorting, packaging, labeling, storage and transportation of production to the market;

• lack of a production planning system and its correlation with the markets’ demands.

A low added value of products involves instability and differences in the producer’s income.

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Given the small size of the fruit and vegetable farms and farmers’ lack of experience in relation to the harvest insurance system, the prevention and management crisis mechanisms play a very important role in stabilizing the producers’ income. Given the small number of farmers who have fruit or vegetables production insurance policies, we could say that the adverse effects caused by the climate phenomena, diseases and pests on the vegetables and fruit plantations are totally borne by the producer. The damages caused by pests and diseases of quarantine are excluded, since the producers of whom crops are affected by them can obtain financial support.

The number of exploitations which have insurance policies for their crops crop is very low and given these circumstances in the fruits and vegetables sector we cannot talk about a crop insurance system. The causes are multiple but the most important deficiencies are:

• the lack of interest on producers behalf;

• the lack of an attractive/flexible offer from the insurance companies;

• the lack of collective actions;

• lack of administrations concern in order to create a guarantee fund to which the administration, insurance companies and producers should participate.

ROMANIA'S EXPORTS AND IMPORTS IN THE FRUIT