Foreigners own some 700,000 hectares of land in Romania, around 8.5 percent of the country's ploughable area, according to Romania's Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara.

Italian buyers rank first, with 24 percent, followed by German ones, with 15.4 percent, and buyers from Arabic countries, some 9.9 percent. Hungarians have some 8 percent of the 700,000 hectares of land owned by foreigners in Romania, while Spanish buyers, some 6 percent. Then come Austrians, with 6 percent, Danish buyers – some 4.5 percent, Greek and Dutch, with 2.4 percent each.

The price of agriculture land in Romania stayed between EUR 1,500 and EUR 2,500 per hectares last year, while in 2011, it reached EUR 4,000 to EUR 5,000 per hectare in some areas.

“Land prices are among the lowest in the European Union. It is one of our weaknesses, as prices of land in EU countries with a developed agriculture can reach EUR 10,000 to EUR 15,000 a hectare,” said Valeriu Tabara.

Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com