The attractive prospect of Romanian farmland has so far led to Italian investors buying some 170,000 hectares of farmland in the country or about a quarter of all the surfaces owned by foreigners, according to data from the Italian Trade Promotion Agency.

Cheap prices and the availability of good quality land are two of the main reasons Italian companies have invested in Romanian agriculture, said participants in a seminar organized by the Italian Embassy to Bucharest and the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development this week.

Future developments depend on the authorities’ efforts to increase the sector’s attractiveness even further by making good use of EU funds, simplifying administrative procedures related to land acquisitions and more predictability in state refunds, said Mario Cospito, the Italian ambassador to Bucharest.

Numerous Italian companies have invested in local farming, agricultural machines and processing, he said. “Italians could also contribute by investing in the infrastructure related to the agricultural sector such as warehouses, greenhouses and irrigations,” added the ambassador.

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