ANALYSIS OF FOOD SECURITY IN ROMANIA USING SWOT - ANALYSIS

Abstract

The analysis of food security in Romania was carried out in view of the four dimensions of food security, respectively: (i) availability of agricultural production; (ii) access to food; (iii) supply stability and (iv) food safety and quality, adapted to the macroeconomic (national) and microeconomic (individual) situation. SWOT analysis is based on a combination of indicators found in the literature including those used by national and international bodies to assess the state of food and nutritional security of the population in various regions. A first aspect particularly important concerns the high degree of agricultural production instability and its high dependence on meteorological factors, with negative consequences in ensuring food safety of the population from its own production. To this fact it also competes a low level of self-sufficiency in a group of important products, such as meat, fruits, vegetables, sugar and fish, where systematic deficits are covered by imports. The inability of the Romanian agri-food system to provide a stable agricultural supply, both quantitatively and qualitatively, ensuring as much as possible the self-sufficiency and stability of supply, affects the productivity of production factors, the efficiency of agricultural holdings and, therefore, the competitiveness of Romanian agricultural products on the market.