TRANSITION'S SACRIFICES - SUGAR CHANNEL IN ROMANIA, A LOST "BATTLE" ?

Dan Marius VOICILAS (Romanian Academy Of Sciences)

The difficulties met in the transition economies are reflected in the fall of those industries, which cannot adapt rapidly to the requirements of the market economy. For Romania, the sugar industry is the most eloquent example of the decline of a sub-branch of the food industry, a branch of strategic importance.

The lack of a clear policy of the State for the support given to sugar beet growers and incentives for the investments in the sugar industry have made possible the disappearance almost entirely of the sugar beet crop in Romania and the strong deterioration of fixed capital accumulations in the sugar industry, previous to the year 1990. The lack of internal performance, the high processing costs and low yields obtained in this industry, have created a free way for massive sugar imports. In this way, Romania becames in less than 10 years from an exporting country a net importing country of sugar, fact which has real effects upon the food security of the Romanians. The weak results of the sugar industry in Romania have made that "the battle" with the import sugar to be lost. All these will be presented in this paper.