THE VEGETABLES MARKET IN ROMANIA

Romania, due to its favourable climatic conditions, is a country with a long tradition in growing vegetables. The importance of growing vegetables is demonstrated both by area cultivated with vegetables and by the large number of individual producers. In this context, the current study comprises, on the one hand, the evolution of vegetable crops specific indicators, and, on the other hand, the evolution of foreign trade. As for the actual production of vegetables in Romania, it cannot provide the requisites for domestic consumption and for this reason we resort to imports. The imports of vegetables and unprocessed products have a negative influence on the trade balance. The producers, processors and distributors of vegetables and vegetable products are faced with a series of problems that have a negative influence on their economic and financial results. Among these problems, the most important ones are generated by: the use of nonperforming traditional technologies that contributed to lower productions, as compared to the productions obtained by EU vegetable farmers; the difficulty in marketing the vegetables within an optimum time interval because vegetable farmers are not members of associations that have a viable marketing programme, which would ensure an adequate and efficient vegetables distribution; the use of nonperforming seeds in order to obtain vegetables. In conclusion, it is imperative to support vegetable farming in order to provide the requisites for consumption and in order to increase the producers' revenues in the rural space. This can be achieved by accessing structural funds.