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Caps on the mark-ups for certain basic foods will be kept in place and a regulatory act regarding Romanian products might be adopted, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Monday evening, emphasizing that there is currently a clear program to support the Romanian food processing industry.
"Why are there no Romanian products, why did the Romanian food plants go bankrupt? Because they didn't exist... but now there is a clear program afoot to support processing in Romania. But, just like in France, the retailer mark-ups for domestic products should be capped, Romanian products should sell at retailers with a maximum profit margin of 20 percent, because you import from the country your equity capital comes from for jam, marmalade, and then you add a higher profit margin to Romania-made jam so that the domestic one is more expensive than the one from the country the retailer capital comes from, which is incorrect. Therefore we will come up with a legislative amendment to cap the mark-up for Romanian products and then we'll see the real competition. I don't need to conduct checks to see how much you add for each product," Ciolacu explained.
The prime minister emphasized that with no bold decisions taken for 30 years, an adjustment to reality is needed now.
"The causes are to be found in the 30 years during which some bold decisions should have been made. Strategic thinking regarding Romania should have been devised back then. Now I have to adjust to the current realities, and we must look at how things are done elsewhere. I cannot allow this, no matter how much the Romanians produce, if the retailer mark-up is very high, they are automatically rendered uncompetitive," Ciolacu said.
