Some 866,000 Romanian farmers have submitted payment requests to the Agency for Payments and Investments in Agriculture (APIA) asking for subsidies for a total area of 9.65 million hectares, the Agriculture Ministry announced on Wednesday, May 16.

While the number of payment requests is slightly lower than last year, the total surface increased.

Over half of the farmers who submitted payment requests, namely 453,000, are over 60, agriculture minister Petre Daea said.

“We even have farmers aged between 91 and 100, some 4,224,” Daea added.

Meanwhile, the number of farmers under 60 hasn’t seen a positive dynamic, according to the minister. Only about 1,000 farmers are under 20 and 35,000 are between 21 and 30.

The farmers who submitted payment requests will get about EUR 400 million worth of subsidies from the European Union, in addition to the EUR 1.85 billion Romania has already received from the EU for the agriculture sector this year.

editor@romania-insider.com