Mihai Daraban: Romania must become an important player in the transport of agricultural products in the Black Sea area
Publicat pe 27/10/2023
Bucharest, October 26, 2023: The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR) and the Embassy of the United States of America (USA) in Romania organized on October 26, “U.S. trade talks forum for water&food security in Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine”, event organized on the sidelines of the Indagra 2023 fair.
The forum brought together government decision-makers, representatives of the business environment from Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine, the discussions having as their central theme new business opportunities in the context of the European Union’s budget investments in green energy, agriculture and irrigation infrastructure. Also, American specialists, service providers in the climate resilience and drought sector in the Black Sea region, presented solutions in the field of food security.
“CCIR and the US Embassy in Romania have been developing joint projects in various economic sectors for a long time, today’s meeting, on the sidelines of Indagra, the largest agricultural fair in Southeast Europe, is already a tradition, bringing together representatives of companies specialized in irrigation. Regarding this subject, if we look at the hydrographic map of Romania, we should never be allowed to pronounce the word drought again, given the huge potential of our country to permanently ensure the best conditions for agriculture. At the same time, however, we must implement the latest technology in the field to make the most of our natural resources. Romania has the chance to become an important hub on the Black Sea for agricultural products, if we take into account the fact that, at the moment, the Port of Constanța has taken over the cargo activity of the six or seven Ukrainian ports that ceased their activity due to the war. In our opinion, if the war in Ukraine were to end today, Romania can remain an important player in the Black Sea region for another five years”, said the president of CCIR, Mr. Mihai Daraban.
“The responsibility of the US Commercial Service in Romania is to promote American companies that want to do business here. I am very happy that this year, as part of this forum and, implicitly, the Indagra fair, important American companies, suppliers of top technologies in the agricultural field, are participating. It is very important for the states of the Black Sea region to implement the climate change programs developed by the US and the EU and to implement clean energy to power smart irrigation infrastructures to increase crop yields. Water security and agri-food security are subjects of national security, and the countries from the Black Sea area must be able to face the risks of floods, earthquakes, diseases, soil erosion, land desertification and military conflicts,” said Mr. Eli Corso Phinney, commercial attaché of the US Embassy in Romania.
“Food waste is a major topic of discussion within the European Commission, at the moment there are normative acts in the works to reduce this waste until the year 2030. Regarding the irrigation problem in Romania, there are currently 1.1 million of hectares that we managed to return to agriculture, the target being 2.2 million hectares. Through the programs we developed in this field, we managed to offer free water for farmers and at the same time, through secondary infrastructure projects, 400 million euros are allocated to associations specialized in irrigation,” said the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Florin Barbu.
Phone: 0374474373; 0213190085
e-mail: bcp@ccir.ro