Right at the peak of the European crisis triggered by the mad cow and foot-and-mouth disease, Romanian “100% natural” products stand to gain, because they are cultivated without the aid of pesticides and fertilisers.
Representatives of Dorna group, known mainly for La Dorna milk and Poiana Negri and Izvorul Alb mineral waters, are testing the waters, planning to export to Europe the first Romanian products belonging to the so-called “organic” or “bio” range, which have been in very high demand in Western Europe and the United States over the past years.
“We intend to become the first Romanian producer of BIO dairy, which we will launch in the next two months,” Jean Valvis, Dorna Group chairman, told Ziarul Financiar.
Valvis says that Dornelor basin, an area long forsaken by civilisation and stretching in the northern region of Romania, is the perfect location for obtaining this type of products.
“All these recent problems related to the nutritional chain of the foodstuffs industry that occurred in the west of the European Union, the antibiotic issue, chicken dioxin, the mad cow, the foot-and-mouth disease, have proven that the only model for the future foodstuffs industry is the biologic one. This model strictly forbids any use of antibiotics, drugs and chemicals,” Valvis explained.
First of all, every farmer must prove that he owns two hectares of land for three cows, so that the fodder must be 100% naturally vegetal.
“Perfectly natural” or BIO cheese and milk are two or three times more expensive than the usual sorts, so that production will be mainly aimed at exports.
“Products would become more expensive, but I do not believe they would fail to find a market in our country as well,” says Elena Sima, a researcher with the National Institute of Agricultural Economy.
In the United States, the market for such products, also known as “supernaturals,” amounted to 19 billion dollars in 2000, 7% higher as compared to the previous year. According to several polls, one of two Americans has bought such products last year, at least occasionally.
A new trend has appeared lately, mainly in Western Europe and America, where consumers have a “culture” of eating and are concerned with how healthy the food is, that is the so-called biological (BIO) or organic products.
Intensive agriculture led to air, land and water pollution, going as far as to diseases favoured by the excessive chemical content in food. In US, the certification of products as biological (organic) has been available since 1995.
When a processer or producer wants to get a biological certificate, a private or public body checks to see whether the products pending for certification are compliant with the required quality standards.