Global IssuesROMANIA: Slow Food - Opportunity for Small Farmers
Mari Cat, an economist by profession, thinks nothing of selling meat, bread and apple juice at a stall in the ‘Slow Food’ market in this central Romanian town.
'It is very important that prices are set by the producer [farmer], who should control the entire chain from production to commercialisation,' Cat explained. 'As it happens now, commercial agents set the value of the product, and small producers are forced to sell their products to intermediaries at extremely cheap prices.'
'Small producers cannot control commercialisation process because they are frightened by the difficulty of it,' Cat told IPS. 'They lack enough information and guidance, while the procedures needed for certification and recognition of the products on the market are complicated.'
The Slow Food market on Apr. 24, in which Cat participated, was the third to take place in Brasov this month, giving local producers in Romania a rare opportunity to sell directly to consumers.
Slow Food International is a non-profit eco-gastronomic organisation founded in 1989 to counteract fast food, the disappearance of local food traditions, and sensitise people to the impact of consumer choices.
Romanian farmers joined the Slow Food movement in 2007 and, since then, Slow Food markets have been growing in popularity.
'In countries like Romania, which are neither rich nor poor, traditional agriculture is threatened by the new trend of consumerism, by large land acquisitions made by multinationals and by Western speculative realtors,' said Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food International, in an interview given to 2 Celsius Network at the end of last year.
'This is leading to the ruin of peasant civilisation, one of the most shameful things happening in East European countries,'' said Petrini. 'So we must create a great movement of reaction against this.''
The most obvious benefit Slow Food offers to Romanian farmers is market access.
'We sell in Slow Food markets, or in the market organised by the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest,' says Madalin Bangala, a 17-year-old farmer from Fundata, Brasov. 'The regular markets in the city are far from us and it would be too costly to go there every day,' he added.
Bangala’s family runs a sizeable farm raising 300 sheep and 40 cows and employs seven shepherds. Yet, even for them it would be difficult to handle the transportation costs to regular markets or to employ additional staff to take care of this process.
'It is simply too costly for us to sell in regular markets or shops, hence our only outlets are markets such as Slow Food,' says Varga Zsuzsanna, running a small family business producing turta dulce (a kind of ginger bread) in Odorheiu Secuiesc, Harghita county. 'Those taxes would put us out of business.'
'Plus, the regular shops and markets are invaded by cheap products of low quality, often imports, and there is no place for local producers anymore,' Varga told IPS.
'If you do not have a strong brand name behind you, it is very difficult to get market access,' said Mihai Breazu, a wine producer owning a 35-hectare farm. 'It is more difficult to sell the products than to produce them.'
Slow Food markets additionally give Romanian farmers a chance to exchange information with one another.
Romania has been a member of the European Union (EU) since 2007 and this means that farmers in this country can access European funds for agriculture. However, many do not even try, deterred by the perceived difficulty of the process.
The Bangala family has stayed away from European funding or bank loans, saying they were 'afraid' to try to get credit because of the risks involved.
Breazu, the wine producer, thinks otherwise. 'It is not difficult to access European funds, I have made the application myself,' he told IPS. 'But there are technical aspects to the applications where you might need the help of a specialist.’’
'Small farmers need information and assistance, otherwise they cannot stay in business,' agrees Cat.
The Slow Food markets are a welcome help for semi-subsistence farmers who need market access for their products and opportunities to network with one another. Unfortunately, for the bulk of Romanian farmers, who own plots of a few hectares and produce for survival, there is little hope.
According to a study published in April this year by the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD), three-quarters of the total number of farms in the country are subsistence or semi-subsistence ones. Out of these, three million very small farms (below 0.3 hectares) are not eligible for direct farming payments from the EU, because they are too small.
About 35 percent of Romania’s labour force is employed in agriculture.
The study says most of the smaller farms will slowly exit the food production system - even though subsistence farming represents one of the most important poverty alleviation tools in the country.
ENRD further warns that even semi-subsistence farmers are in a critical position in Romania. And this is because 'the EU is sending mixed signals as regards small farmers,' says the report.
While acknowledging the importance of small farms for poverty alleviation, preservation of biodiversity and safeguarding of local traditions, EU policies also 'strongly favour efficiency and commercial competitiveness, which might decrease the survival chances of subsistence and semi-subsistence farms.'
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service