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Romania Procurement and Distribution
State farms, like other socialist enterprises after the
implementation of the New Economic and Financial
Mechanism, were in
theory self-financed and self-managed concerns that were
expected
to earn a profit while delivering assigned quantities of
output to
the state. In reality, few state farms in the 1980s could
turn a
profit, because the government's procurement prices were
consistently lower than production costs. Cooperatives and
private
farmers, too, had large state-imposed quotas to fill even
before
satisfying their own food requirements. A 1984 decree
specified the
quantity of production to be delivered to the state by
farmers. For
example, potato growers were required to deliver three
tons per
hectare of land cultivated, and dairy farmers had to turn
over 800
liters of milk per cow. To ensure compliance with the
compulsory
quotas, Ceausescu reinstituted the Department for
Contracting,
Acquiring, and Storing Farm Produce, which had been
disbanded in
1956. The state was able to hold sway over individual
farmers
because it controlled the supply of fertilizers,
herbicides,
machinery, construction materials, and other inputs. To
gain access
to these materials, the farmer had to sign delivery
contracts.
Farmers who failed to comply with the delivery quotas even
risked
losing their land.
Farmers were permitted to keep for their own use any
food
remaining after their quotas had been filled, and they
could sell
the surplus at farmers' markets, where prices in the early
1980s
were frequently five times the state procurement prices. A
law
passed in 1983 required peasants to obtain a license to
sell their
products on the open market, and it imposed a maximum
commodity
price of 5 percent above the state retail price.
Disappointing
harvests in the early 1980s convinced the government to
raise
procurement prices. As a result, peasant incomes rose by
some 12
percent between 1980 and 1985, and farm output increased
by about
10 percent. Private farmers in the mid-1980s were obliged
to sell
to the state 30 percent of the milk, 50 percent of the
pork, 12
percent of the potatoes, and comparable shares of other
commodities
they produced.
Throughout the 1980s, a self-sufficiency program,
mandated by
the PCR, was in effect. Each village and judet was
responsible for producing, to the maximum extent possible,
the food
needed by the local population. In reality the program was
another
means for procuring agricultural products for export.
Nearly all
the production from the three types of farms was
confiscated by
state procurement agencies, which then returned the amount
of food
the state deemed sufficient to meet the dietary needs of
the
village and judet. The quantity returned invariably
was
less than that delivered. The self-sufficiency program in
effect
reversed the rationalization of the 1970s, when regions
specialized
in the crops and livestock best suited to local
conditions. Thus a
portion of the prime grain lands of Walachia had to be
diverted to
truck farming, while cool, wet regions of Transylvania
attempted to
grow sunflowers. The self-sufficiency program seriously
impeded the
distribution of agricultural products among regions and
damaged the
domestic marketing system.
The party secretary of each judet was
responsible for
delivering a specified quota of food to the state. Because
these
individuals reacted in different ways to the
countervailing needs
of their constituents and the central authorities, there
was
considerable regional variation in food supplies. Many
party
secretaries began understating output figures so that less
would
have to be delivered to Bucharest and more would be
available for
the people of their judet. Aware of this regional
variation, citizens made food-hunting forays into other
judete hoping to find stores better stocked.
Ceausescu
ordered the militia to monitor the highways and railroads
to
prevent "illegal" food trafficking.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Processing itself
was torn
between a sense of responsibility to safeguard the
interests of the
agricultural sector and its obligation to fulfill the
regime's
mandate to maximize procurement. To resolve these
conflicting
loyalties, in February 1986 a separate Ministry of Food
Industry
and Procurement was established.
Data as of July 1989
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