An Evaluation of the Romanian Fruits and Vegetables Producers Access to Different Types of Common Agricultural Policy Instruments. Is there Any Real Consistency with the Policy Objectives?

Abstract

Fruits and vegetables sectors are considered to be strategic in the European Union due to their contribution to a better human health. Among others positive effects, their intake increase reduce mortality and obesity, assuring in the same time harmonised development for young children. The present study thus focused to reveal the consistency of the measure implemented in the Common Agricultural Policy to support fruits and vegetables production in Romania in liaison with the policy objectives. The country is one of the main ten important European producers of horticultural products in terms of production volumes and acreage. Results showed that over the last seven years (2007-2014), the sectorial production drawbacks have not been ameliorated very much. Both sectors are dominated by small-size farms that can produce only seasonally and mainly for short-market chains. In the same time, the greenhouses area shrink to levels that made the country extremely dependent to imports especially for tomatoes. The analysis of the pillar one payments schemes revealed that the fruits and vegetables producers could have access to only one payment that was half from European averages. Moreover, almost half of the producers had low sizes that left them outside the eligible criteria. The measures designed for the second pillar also penalized producers through the selection criteria. These results showed that for Romania there was not a real consistency between the actual policy measures and the objectives assumed by policy makers. The future measures (2014-2020) seem to correct these negative findings being better tailored to the situation of the local fruits and vegetables producers.