Agriculture in Romania

Romania has an agricultural capacity of approximately 14.7 million hectares (57,000 sq mi) 9.38 million are used as arable land. In 2008, an evaluation revealed that 6.8 million hectares are not used. In 2018, Romania was the third biggest agricultural producer of the EU and produced the largest amount of maize.

Agriculture summed up about 4.3% of GDP in 2019, down from 12.6% in 2004. As of 2017, 25.8% of the Romanian workforce is employed in agriculture, compared to an EU average of 4.4%. As of 2016, only 1.6% of Romanian farmers were recipients of tertiary education, compared to an 8.9% EU average.

Mechanization is comparatively poor, in 2009 there was one tractor available for every 54 hectares, while the EU average was one tractor for every 13 hectares. Approximately 170,000 tractors existed in Romania in 2009, of which about 80% were aging or obsolete. In many regions of the country, farmers still use horse-drawn agriculture tools and rely on animal power. In 2009, while in Western Europe tractors were replaced after 3,000-4,000 hours of use, in Romania they sometimes lasted up to 12,000 hours.

The main problems encountered by Romanian agriculturists are a lack of major investments in agriculture, due to difficulty in accessing available funds, fragmentation and erosion of soil, property-related lawsuits and obsolete technology. Several major companies have entered the Romanian market, including Smithfield Foods, Cargill, Bunge, Glencore, Lactalis, and Meggle AG. These companies have since invested hundreds of millions of euros in Romania.