Romania is producing chicken meat on farms that exceeds by 100% national demand, and so there are export possibilities, said Ioan Popa, chairman and founder of Transavia agricultural company, on Monday.
"It is the only area - I mean in terms of food, food products - where we produce 100% over the domestic demand. We also have export possibilities. That does not mean that we do not import, but imports and exports are somewhere close to the same level. On the other hand, we have a big problem with pork, which over 85% is imported. As far as beef is concerned, even if we don't have a very large consumption habit, we are quite deficient - not to mention other species. As a man who has a rich experience in this area of activity, I can guarantee you that even in the next 10 years we will not produce pork in Romania to cover the national consumption, because there are very thorny issues that no one deals with - and the government does not want to solve them. No one invests money in a sector like that anymore, as long as there are extraordinary collateral risks behind it," Popa told "ZF TOP 1,000 Largest Companies: A Thousand Reasons to Trust Romania" conference.
According to him, bird flu and swine fever could be eradicated in Romania through vaccination.
"I'll give you two examples that concern poultry and pork. At European and global level, we have a problem with bird flu, which is a viral disease. Any viral disease can be eradicated by vaccination alone, whether it is bird species, animals or humans. Some countries vaccinate birds against bird flu. We, in Europe, with the hubris that we have in our heads and, probably also the Americans, for various reasons that we do not discuss here - that they are specialized matters and we can have different opinions - we do not solve that. The same problem is with swine fever. If we don't solve the game and we don't vaccinate, we have no chance to solve this problem ever."
As for the Transavia company, Popa estimated a tripling of business in the next five years.
"The company operates without loans, without state aid, without European funds or other programmes. This field is a slightly different field compared to other businesses in which you do work, for example, the construction field. In order to create added value, to develop our business, we need production areas. Our company owns about 1 million square metres of production space today and we are still building. This year I hope to build another 100,000 square metres. I have set the goal of tripling my turnover and profit in the next five years."
As for the partnership with the state, he considers that it is a difficult objective to achieve.
"It is hard to believe that we will make a partnership with the state. From what we can see, relations are deteriorating, they are not at all like they were two-three years ago. And I ask you a rhetorical question. Do you think it is normal for an important investment to wait two years for them to give me a building permit? Probably the state is not interested if I make a profit in these two years, but maybe it is interested if I give it taxes and if I hire the population that has nowhere to work. That might interest them. (...) The biggest problem we have is with the government bodies that put obstacles in our way from one end to the other, in everything we do. We are active in eight counties in Romania. There is no day from God that we do not have a state body checking us. I have no idea a what they are still controlling. Because every time they come, they find us okay. Maybe they go to other places, where things are not quite right. Something you can do today with EUR 1,000, it could cost you EUR 2,000 in five years or you realise that you don't need to do it anymore. Well, if the state waits to give me all kinds of permits and to do all kinds of studies in order to give me a building permit in two years, I might not feel like making that investment anymore," said Popa.
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