More of Everything

The domestic demand for meat, eggs, milk and sugar was higher this year, as compared to the previous year. Statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture show an aggregate increase of 9% in food consumption. The reason for this trend stays in both a favorable year for farmers in 2004, but also in higher imports.

ESTIMATES: Meat and meat products will be on higher demand over the winter holidays

Statistics for the first nine months show a 7.7% increase in meat consumption per capita, from 32.4 kilos to 34.9 kilos per person per year.
Poultry meat consumption had the sharpest growth, of 9%, from 12.2 kilos to 13.3 kilos per person per year. Beef meat was higher too, with 6.9%, from 5.8 kilos to 6.3 kilos per person per year. Pork meat consumption was 6.9% higher, from 13 kilos to 13.9 kilos per person per year.

Also in the first nine months, Romanians drank more milk and ate more sour cream, cheese and other dairy products. The average consumption of dairy products per capita grew from 174 kilos to 180 kilos, which is a 3.4% growth from last year. The demand for eggs was higher too, with 232 eggs per person this year, from 228 eggs per person last year.
Sugar consumption went up too, from 17.9 kilos per capita last year, to 19.2 kilos per capita in 2004, which means a 7.3% increase. Romanians also ate this year more pastas. From an average of 1.97 kilos per capita in 2000, they went to 2.77 kilos this year. While an estimate of Ion Raducan, manager of one of the largest producers of pastas, show that Romanians will eat as much as 10 kilos of pasta per year in 2015. "Romanians eat spaghettis because they are cheap," said Raducan.

AFORDABLE: Romanians eat a lot of pasta because their price is low

The consumption of bread goes to 115 kilos per capita per year. Most products are of white flour, which have a lower content of vitamins and fiber. The consumption of whole grain bread went down in the past ten years, as did the overall consumption of bread. "Before 1989, Romanians ate 600 grams of bread per capita per day. True, half of it was actually used for feeding the livestock," said Aurel Popescu, president of the association of companies in the milling industry, Rompan.
"When compared to 2002, Romanians ate with 10% less bread in 2003. But I think this is not an accurate representation of the facts, but a reflection of the tax evasion," said Popescu.
"The estimates are for the bread consumption to decrease even further, as the diversification of products on the market grows. A Frenchman, for instance, is down to 160 grams of bread per day, while in Romania the still high level of bread consumption may be attributed to poverty," said Popescu.

Food consumption will go higher the closer we are to European integration. A statistic of the Ministry of Agriculture shows that portions became bigger since 2000. Milk consumption will go from 231 liters in 2003, to 255 liters in 2007. While the soft drinks consumption will go up from 60 liters per year, currently, to 65 liters in 2007. The meat and meat products consumption is also deemed to grow from 60 kilos per year to 63.2 kilos per year.