Romania, among EU's top ten milk producers, but only one in 5 litres reaches plants

Romania is among the top ten markets with the largest milk production in the EU, with an annual average of 232 litres per capita, above the volumes of states such as Spain, Italy or Great Britain, whereas the domestic dairy market does not exceed a quarter of the value registered in the three European countries. How can this be?

Amid the lack of large farms and of livestock raisers' involvement in milk processing, the domestic industry generates turnover worth around 900m euros annually, three times below the potential related to the 4.7 billion litres of milk produced annually, of which only 20% reach the processing industry.
Milk production costs in Romania are lower than in Hungary, Poland or Slovakia, according to the data included in a Competition Council report. On the other hand, Eurostat's latest price comparisons in the EU show Romania in 2008 had the most expensive fresh milk in retail.
Domestically, fresh cow milk leaves farms at a price of below 1 RON per litre and reaches store shelves at 3-4 RON per litre. Prices will go down only with production efficiency boosting through the creation of several farmer cooperatives that should also get involved in milk processing, this is the outcome of the investigation on the milk market the Competition Council finalised in September.