Peasants living in southern county villages have sold farm land for a mere RON 1,000/hectare (€316.65), compared to its real value of RON 3,000-4,000 (€950-1250).
"These are poor people, who are not able to work their land and are uninformed. We are dealing with this sort of situation in Giurgiu, Olt, and Dolj," Stefan Nicolae, President of the Agrostar Agricultural Confederation, told Business Standard.
The only winners from such transactions are intermediaries. Nicolae added that there are all sorts of intermediaries, who acquire plots of land, especially areas close to towns or national roads, whose market value will increase significantly in the coming years.
Culita Tarata, one of Romania's main farm land exploiters, who owns 60,000 hectares, says peasants are selling their land. "Poverty and drought are leading peasants to sell their land. The Romanian peasant is crushed at present.
Without financial government support, farmers will not have anything for the coming agricultural year. Farm land prices will surely drop. Italians will come and buy farm land, as they have done in Banat [southwestern Romania], will let this lie until its value increases, and will sell it for much higher prices," Tarata said.
Analysts have indicated that there is a recent trend to reduce farm land surfaces, due to the real estate sector boom, which raised prices on the market.
"Land is no longer used for farming but is transformed for real estate projects," said Liviu Voinea, CEO of Group of Applied Economics (GEA), adding that construction and real estate company owners are profiting from this situation.
There are also some who say that the price of farm land has risen year-on-year on average by one fifth. Emil Giurgiu, President of the Real Estate Chamber of Commerce anticipates a price rise of 80 percent for farm land, given that Romania is far below the European average of some €17,000-20,000/hectare.
"Because of the drought, peasants are likely to sell even their cows, let alone their land, but they lack buyers since investors are away on holiday right now,"Ion Radu Zilisteanu, spokesman for the Romanian Association of Real Estate Agencies (ARAI) told Business Standard.
Romania has 14.7 million hectares of farm land, of which only 10 million is arable.
""These are poor people, who are not able to work their land and are uninformed. We are dealing with this sort of situation in Giurgiu, Olt, and Dolj Stefan Nicolae President, Agrostar
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