Agriculture : Romania managed to open new export markets this year, in the USA and Morocco

Romania managed to get on the market in the United States of America with products of pork, as well as to export, for the first time, to Morocco, live sheep with zero animal quarantine days, stated the chairman of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), Alexandru Nicolae Bociu.  Following very rigorous audits, Romanian operators have been approved to export products from Romania to the US. This is very important because we are exporting pork products in a context where African swine fever is evolving in Romania," Bociu explained.    ‘ The most important market we managed to open over the last six months was that of the USA. We managed to export raw-dried products and canned pates. Following rigorous audits, the Romanian operators have been approved to export products from Romania to the US. This is very important because we are exporting pork products in a context where African swine fever is evolving in Romania’ Bociu explained.He also mentioned that another export market ‘ conquered’ by Romania is that of Morocco, where the Romanian farmers managed to get live sheep, without having the animals kept in quarantine, this being a first for Romania."It has never happened that we have exported live animals with zero days of quarantine, but the representatives of the veterinary services and the Ministry of Agriculture of Morocco came, saw what farms we have, and considered it appropriate to export animals with zero days quarantine period," stressed the head of ANSVSA. On the other hand, in Jordan, a country to which hundreds of thousands of live animals are exported annually, Romania's request this spring to reduce the quarantine period for sheep for export from 21 to 14 days did not materialise, but this market "works very well". Other opportunities for the export of live animals and products from Romania are under negotiation with Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Egypt, while in the case of China, negotiations are still ongoing for the export of live animals, Romania being present only with honey, semen and alfalfa.Israel is another country where Romania exports live animals, but they want to purchase animal products according to Kosher rules, and negotiations are at an advanced level for the export of meat resulting from slaughtering in our country. According to ANSVSA data, by 31 August 2023 Romania had exported more than one million live cattle, sheep and goats to countries outside the EU, namely Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Lebanon, Libya and Egypt. Jordan is the top exporter of domestic animals, with 708,343 live animals, the largest share being held by sheep, 702,473 heads, followed by cattle - 4,376 heads and goats - 1,500. Saudi Arabia ranks second with a total of 266,812 animals, of which 265,466 sheep, 746 cattle and 900 goats, and Libya third with 60,767 head (58,500 sheep and 2,267 cattle). Israel received 42,082 live animals this year: 39,142 sheep and 2,940 cattle. Other third countries to which indigenous animals were exported were Lebanon and Egypt.   On 1 December 2022, Romania had a total herd of 1.814 million cattle and 11.692 million sheep, according to the  data presented by  the National Institute of Statistics. Romania ranked tenth in the European Union in terms of cattle herds and second after Spain in terms of sheep herds.