RSS
Food sector, protected by Italian investors against the financial crisis ?
Under the conditions where exports of food products of Italian origin have increased in Romania over the first six months of this year by 60% and Italian societies are more and more interested in the Romanian business environment, Mario Iaccarino, manager of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade Bucharest (ICE) considers that the respective market will not register a drop due to the flexibility of the Romanians’ way of consumption and due to increased competition. Present at the event « Italian taste » organised by ICE Bucharest together with the Italian organizations Confagricola and Regione Abruzzo, Mario Iaccarino stated that, at local level, the trend was to slightly increase the purchasing power of the Romanians despite the present financial international situation. ”We estimate that from the whole of Romanian population a percentage of 8-10% can have access to these products of quality promoted by the Italian producers. We don’t say that the purchasing power will not have a slight drop, but certainly the competition in this sector will increase as Italian companies are more and more interested to invest in Romania” Iaccarino says. Romanian consumers are especially interested in food products of the vegetables – fruit type, the value of Italian exports over the period of January – July being almost 35 million euros.Moreover, the Italians exported in Romania, during the same period, meat products ( 13.47 million euros),sweets ( 7,05 million euros), various food products ( 6.98 million euros) coffee ( 6.48 million euros) oils and fats ( 5.92 million euros) and wines ( 3.27 million euros).
As regards the evolution of the food sector in 2009, in the context of financial crisis, Mario Iaccarino said that, as we speak about globalised economy, everything depends on the world balance. At mid-2008 there were in Romania 25,854 Italian companies, with a social capital of 862 million euros, according to the data published by the Trade Registrar.Moreover, according to the information supplied by ICE Bucuresti, the Italian companies functioning in Romania have an impact on the GDP estimated at 7 – 10%, while the volume of trade exchange between Italy and Romania is around 12 billion euros.