"We support the poultry meat sector because it has developed extremely well in recent years. Whereas so far Romania's relevant trade was running a deficit, 2012 was the first year when our poultry meat exports outperformed imports. Romania's poultry meat outbound shipments in 2012 stood at over 250 million euros, while imports amounted to only 200 million euros. Nevertheless, the sector experiences difficulties because tax evasion affects its very survival," Minister of Agriculture Daniel Constantin said.

According to Romanian news agency, ActMedia, Mr Constantin underscored these aspects because after talks with the producers, solutions were identified to supplement financial support from European funds.

"I promised them and we identified solutions to increase funding from European money under the National Rural Development Program, which were anyway not enough to cover all the applications filed by pig and fowl breeders. We are speaking of a need for 200 million euros annually to support this sector," he added.

Mr Constantin met with members of the Board of Directors of the ProAgro National Federation of the Romanian Agriculture and Food Industry Producers. Also participating in talks were representatives of the Romania Farmers Association, the National Inter-professional Vine and Wine Organisation, the League of Irrigation Water Users, the Romanian Pork Producers Association, the Romanian Poultry Breeders Union, the National Association of Young Romanian Farm Producers, the ‘Planta Romanica' Employers Association, the Dobrogea Sheep Breeders Association and the Federation of Mountain Shepherds.