Romania loses position as major powdered milk exporter

While Romania was one of Europe’s largest powdered milk producers in the 1990s, with 40 factories, it now has only four units with domestic capital, and imports cover 75 percent of the local market. Domestic production, of 29,300 tons in 1990, fell to 6,136 tons last year, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), due to the competition of low-priced imports. At the same time, local powdered milk exports declined significantly, due to restrictions on deliveries in the European Union, and main destinations continuing to be countries in the Middle East and Asia.


“The main problem of this industry is the fact that no powdered milk producer now has the oval stamp, which guarantees that the product complies with European standards and can be exported in Europe. Secondly, the price is not as competitive as that from abroad, as production costs are higher in Romania,” the Manager of the Association of Employers in the Milk Industry (APRIL), Valentin Blanaru, told Business Standard.