In the coming period, a market reshuffle is expected, with top acquisitions not excluded, and some small producers to disappear, and their market share to be taken over by sold companies.
“I do not think that we, those who work on the white market, will have a profit this year, or maybe, in the best case, we are talking of an insignificant profit of 0.1-0.2 percent,” Sorin Minea, President of the Angst group of companies, told Business Standard.
“Most of the market went over to black this year, and those producers who resisted registered declines between 5-15 percent. We are practically competing with a parallel market. On the one is a clean market, on which all are authorized and respect European legislation, and on the other, producers, who are only registered, do not have a limit on quantity, and can produce the same quantity as we can working in garages and unhygienic areas,” added Minea. He went on to say that the market is characterized by generalized chaos, with black market trade exceeding 50 percent of the ratio, and small, neighbourhood stores stocked with goods by producers who no one has ever heard of.
“Romania will become a consumer of inferior quality products, but at the very lowest prices. Controls are carried out only in authorized supermarkets and stores, with those working on the black market getting away without control, and I am guessing that each one of them pays for this once a month,” said Minea.
Measures that should be taken relate to the application of legislation and the effecting of serious controls, with half the fines given on the basis of debatable criteria, considers the President of Angst. “Huge fines are given for minor issues. I legally contested three such fines and won the cases, but abandoned the cases in due time, as a court case is more costly than paying the fine,” added Minea.
