Over one billion euros a year in direct subsidies per hectare from the EU and the state budget, granted to farmers whether they have worked their land or not, have not been monitored so far, with the effects of investments sourced strictly from this budget being unknown to the authorities. As a result, around 1.7 billion euros have since 2007 gone into the pockets of owners of fallow land, i.e. over 400 million euros per year. Then there is also the grain and food black market, put by producers at nearly 3 billion euros per year. Non-regulated sales place Romania towards the bottom of the European ranking in terms of productivity, with the absence of a market for small farmers making Romanian consumers "hypermarket-dependent". Under the circumstances, how long will it take Romanians to put more Romanian-sourced products on the table than imported ones?
The medium and long-term strategy of the agricultural sector needs to entail bringing plots of land together via exchanges, making massive investments in agricultural crops and livestock rearing and, most of all, putting them to good use in order to boost the GDP.
Over one billion euros a year in direct subsidies per hectare from the EU and the state budget, granted to farmers whether they have worked their land or not, have not been monitored so far, with the effects of investments sourced strictly from this budget being unknown to the authorities. As a result, around 1.7 billion euros have since 2007 gone into the pockets of owners of fallow land, i.e. over 400 million euros per year. Then there is also the grain and food black market, put by producers at nearly 3 billion euros per year. Non-regulated sales place Romania towards the bottom of the European ranking in terms of productivity, with the absence of a market for small farmers making Romanian consumers "hypermarket-dependent". Under the circum
