From Subsistence To Efficiency In The Romanian Agriculture During Transition

In Romanias farming sector are currently working 3.6 million people, representing 32.1% of the total countrys labour force. Yet, they contribute by only 8.5% to total GDP (2005). Besides the sectoral restructuring efforts, there are at present social problems that have to be solved up, namely the diminution of the huge agricultural labour force and the improvement of life quality in the rural areas. The importance of completing the tasks that remained uncompleted during the transition period, namely the privatization of land still in state ownership, competitiveness improvement, development of a market-compatible institutional framework became a pressing need at present, in spite of the many difficulties.subsistence, labor excedent, net importer, quality of life, rural areas, Romania, Agricultural and Food Policy,

The Accession of Romania to the European Union - Scenario Analysis for Key Agricultural Crop Markets Using AGMEMOD Model

Aiming the EU accession put new and significant challenges to the candiadte countries' policies, and the problem of the inclusion of their agricultural sectors was among the most difficult ones. AGMEMOD is an econometric model of the EU-25 + 2 candidate countries (Romania and Bulgaria) agricultural sector. This poster presents the baseline and the scenario results for several key agricultural products of Romania's model developed as part of AGMEMOD model. The model is an econometric, dynamic, multi-product partial equilibrium comodity model. The target of this approach is to evaluate the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy reforms upon the country's agricultural sector in perspective of its accession to the EU. The selected commodities are: soft wheat, barley, maize and sunflower. The baseline scenario depicts the results of the agricultural sector in Romania if the country would not join the EU and would continue with its own agricultural policy as applied until now. The main conclusion coming from the analysis of the baseline scenario is that rather few significant changes in the Romanian agricultural production would have occurred, such as mod est positive evolution of production and consumption for wheat and sunflower, and some stagnation in barley and maize. The Accession scenario of the model indicates a significant positive effect upon the wheat, maize and sunflower production. Together with a moderate increase in the consumption, overall some surpluses for export would be available, modest for maize, but significant for sunflower.Romania, econometric model, EU accession, cereals, sunflower, Crop Production/Industries, Q13, Q18,

STUDY OF WINES POSITIONING ON THE ROMANIAN MARKET

In this paper, I have done a research on the positioning of Romanian wines. The positioning is a necessary approach of brands to have a privileged position in the minds of consumers. In front of the keen foreign competition, the Romanian wine brands must assert a new identity to match the Romanian client's current lifestyle. The main objective of the research is the identification of the Romanian wine brand positioning. To achieve the objective of the research I have conducted a market research. The study was conducted on a sample of 100 respondents, consumers of Romanian wines. In the study, I have focused on a number of elements necessary for obtaining the positioning maps. Thus I tested the assisted and unassisted recognition of vineyards, the vineyards positioning depending on internal and international recognition and tradition / reputation, the vineyards positioning depending on the internal and international recognition and price, the vineyards positioning depending on sweet, red and light wines and on strong and dry wines. The positioning strategy will determine, on the one hand, the efficiency of the marketing activity at the level of consumer segment by obtaining a better image due to the high satisfaction of the specific needs, and on the other hand, the differentiation will enable to the company to gain competitive advantages, hence substantially increased profits. The theoretical contribution of this paper is to clarify the issues of positioning and to emphasize its importance. The practical contribution refers to the positioning of wines brands, which can be a model of reflection for each of the analyzed vineyards.positioning, wine market, competitive strategy

Competitive Advantages and Disadvantages in Romania’s Agri-Food Trade -Trends and Challenges

The paper is part of the studies concerning trade patterns and agri-food foreign trade policies in the EU enlargement context, aiming to assess the competitive trade advantages and disadvantages of the Romania’s agri-food products in the foreign trade relations. The analysis focuses on the challenges of the trade liberalization and its influence on the intensification of the commercial exchanges, the supply diversification and on the trade balance equilibrium, faced by Romania’s agri-food sector over the transition and pre-accession period. The structural reforms of the transition and EU accession preparations induced paramount changes in Romania’s agri-food trade pattern, i.e. a fluctuating evolution of the agri-food foreign trade, either in correlation with the variations in the agricultural supply, the performance deficiencies of the agri-food sector that provoked disequilibria on the export market, or with the effect of political changes upon the trade flows. The recent integration in the Single Market recalls a special attention on the opportunities for the competitive producers to attract benefits offered by the enlarged access possibilities and the openness to third countries. In this context, an in-depth analysis of the bilateral trade relation between Romania and EU has been performed by using an alternative method of the comparative trade advantage index, based on the one developed by Vollrath [1]. The results emphasize the identification of either the competitive agri-food trade potential, or of the sensitive zones that could be affected by the external competition post-accession, as well as the needed improvements in the Romanian agri-food sector’s competitiveness.Agri-food trade, competitiveness, comparative trade advantage index., International Relations/Trade,

The effect of funding the investments in the Romanian agricultural holdings through the pre-accession Programs

In the pre-accession period, in addition to the support to all agricultural holdings by EU funded programs, specific national measures were also applied, together with massive allocation of funds from the national budget in order to support the agricultural producers. The present paper is analyzing the results of SAPARD Program implementation (measure 3.1 Investments on agricultural holdings), as well as of the nationally funded programs. One third of the total funds were allocated for this measure. The present paper is analyzing the eligible projects, as compared to those under the nationally funded investment programs, their distribution by counties and development regions, investment types and volumes, and legal status of the applicant farms, as well as the impact of investments upon the establishment of new farms. At the same time, the private consultancy and design firms, as well as the agricultural consultancy offices at county level had an important contribution in supporting the farmers to carry out over 3600 eligible projects.investments on agricultural holdings, SAPARD Program, Romania, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance,