TRENDS IN ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN ROMANIA

The "Farm to Fork" European Union Strategy sets as key strategic objective to reach "at least 25% of the EU's agricultural land under organic farming and significant increase in organic aquaculture by 2030". The purpose of this paper is to assess the main ongoing trends of the organic farming in Romania. Statistical data was collected from the official website of the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture by studying the conversion and ecological attestation certificates published by the local certification bodies. In Romania there are 11 inspection and certification bodies that have certified 7,977 producers in 2021, mainly having as main activity the vegetable sector. The results reveal that in Romania around 3% of the land is under organic certification that is far below the above-mentioned EU thresholds. In conclusion, Romanian organic agriculture has many farmers who own small plot of land. Although there has been a growing trend of the organic certification over the past few years, the number and area of organic land is largely dependent on the CAP incentives and to a less extent to market opportunities.