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Points To Ponder On Romania
• The United States and Romania began their partnership in 1880, when diplomatic relations were established between the two countries. The first U.S. ambassador to Romania was appointed in 1964.
• Romania is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic with a multi-party system. It has a capitalist market economy and is a member state of NATO and the EU.
• After the revolution in December 1989, Romania began a rather slow process of transition from communist rule to democracy and capitalism. The country finally ended its isolation and developed closer ties with Western Europe and the United States.
• Romania is considered to be a developing country, with an upper-middle income market economy. The economic growth of 2013-2015 was driven by strong industrial exports and excellent agricultural harvests.
• Because of its considerable natural resources, Romania’s economy has a high growth potential. The country has a variety of resources: coal, oil, natural gas, gold, iron, marble, uranium, chrome, hydropower and massive areas of arable land. Romania has an agricultural capacity of approximately 36.3 million acres, of which 24.7 million acres are used as arable land. Agriculture employs about 28 percent of the labor force. The main crops are wheat, corn, canola, barley, sugar beets, sunflower seed, potatoes, grapes. In 2014 Romania had the largest sunflower production in the EU, the second largest production of corn and the fourth of wheat.
• Because of its big harvests of the past, in interwar years Romania was called “the breadbasket of Europe.” Agriculture still faces challenges, such as an obsolete technology, the lack of widespread irrigation channels and a fragmented land.
• The monthly average income per person increased by 4 percent in 2014 to U.S. $280 compared to 2013. Average income per household in 2015 has increased in nominal terms by 8 percent, the average income per household is U.S. $678/month.
• Dairy products, pork, poultry and beef are also produced on the farms of Romania. Several major companies have accessed the Romanian market, including Smithfield Foods, Cargill, Bunge, Glencore, Lactailis and Meggie. Seed companies present in the country include Pioneer (with a 50-year history in Romania), Monsanto, DuPont and DeKalb. ∆
Source: USDA Foreign Agriculture Service.
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