THE ORGANIC MARKET IN ROMANIA: DYNAMICS AND GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF THE ORGANIC OPERATORS DURING 2011-2014

In Romania, like in other European countries, the popularity of the organic products has been increasing in the last years. The organic market is estimated at less than 1% of the retail market compared to the average of the EU countries which is around 5-6%, meaning that Romania has a lot of growth potential. Therefore, an analysis of the certified organic operators (defined according to EU regulations) will reveal more about the structure and the dynamic of the Romanian market. The aim of this paper is to provide details regarding the types of legal entities that chose to certify according to the organic standard, to reveal the migration patterns of the operators from one certification and inspection body to the next and to detect the permanence of operators in the organic system in the context of their geographical distribution. To the best knowledge of the author, this research is unique for Romania as it is the sole analyses of this sort in the time frame of 2011-2014, and even previous years. One of the main results of the analysis is the identification of the regions with most organic operators, meaning the top five counties whit the highest density of organic operators are: Alba, Bistrita Nasaud, Suceava, Iasi and Caras Severin. Moreover, the migration of operators between certification and inspection bodies is a common phenomenon, as almost 1200 operators decided to switch their certification and inspection body during the 2012-2014 time frame. In addition, the most common type of legal entity that chose to certify according to the organic regulation in Romania are: natural persons, authorized natural persons and companies. However, judging by the numbers of operators exiting the organic system, the natural persons and authorized natural persons present clear tendencies of leaving the system sooner than five years.