Agriculture: Romania contributes 23pct of the agricultural workforce in the EU

Romania is one of the most important countries in the European agricultural sector, considering that 23% of the total agricultural workforce in the EU, 1.77 million jobs, is concentrated here - the largest share in the Union, according to a recently launched profile report.Romania owns approximately a third of all farms in the EU, although 90% of them are under five hectares, meaning they are subsistence farms. Impact Hub Bucharest (EIT Food representative in Romania), in partnership with Startarium, launched the fourth edition of the report on Romanian AgriFood startups, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the ecosystem: "Romanian AgriFood Startups Overview Report 2024."The initiative is part of the series of preparatory events within the Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA), dedicated to female entrepreneurs and projects created by them in the agrifood field. Empowering Women in Agrifood is an accelerator programme developed by EIT Food, the world's largest food innovation community. EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.According to the same report, agriculture continues to be a key sector for both the Romanian and European Union economies, despite a constantly decreasing contribution to GDP and an increasingly low profitability.The research shows that Romania is one of the most important countries in the European agricultural sector, considering that 23% of the total agricultural workforce in the EU is concentrated here (1.77 million jobs - the highest share in the Union). Also, 44.3% of farmers are over 65 years old, which highlights an acute problem regarding the aging of the workforce. An interesting fact revealed in the analysis is the percentage of women working in agriculture in Romania, 19% in 2021, the highest in the EU, the abovementioned document states.In 2023, when the available data was collected, there were 73 FoodTech and AgriTech startups in Romania. During 2018-2023, there were 18 rounds of financing attracted, of which 14 million euros for the FoodTech sector and four rounds worth 1.6 million euros for the AgriTech sector.In addition, according to the report, the level of digitalisation in Romanian farms is low, although the use of advanced technologies such as sensors, drones, satellite imaging or artificial intelligence would significantly increase the profitability of the sector.