IMPACT OF THE LIBERALIZATION OF ROMANIAN PORK EXPORTS TO EUROPEAN UNION, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Pork is the most popular meat in Romania, representing more than half of the total yearly consumption per capita. With 19.0 kg per capita, pork consumption is much under the European average of 46.4 kg per capita, which means that there is still room for pork consumption increase. In the year 2012, about 33% of pork consumption was based on imports. The paper attempts to investigate the impact of the liberalization of pork exports to the EU at national market level, as well as the impact upon the soybean oilcake imports, on which Romania remained dependent. Lifting the Romanian pork export ban on the EU market could be a momentum for industry, which could develop in order to satisfy the domestic and export demand. This might also lead to the increase of pork prices on the domestic market due to the competition with foreign markets.