Romania, the second largest sheep breeder in the European Union, but not in the top five meat producers in this industry, could learn from the New Zealand model how to capitalize on its potential, believes Florin Burculescu, president of the Șara Mea Integrated Agricultural Cooperative , the largest in Romania by the number of members.
New Zealand, in contrast to Romania, does not focus on selling live animals, but on meat processing, which generates an almost double price per kilogram. This approach is the future and could be an example for Romania in improving competitiveness and capitalizing on the potential of the local sheep sector.
“New Zealand does not sell live animals or rams anywhere in the world. I think this is: to be able to process, to make lamb or mutton meat, a category of meat clearly superior to that of chicken or pork, which are now on the market”, said Florin Burculescu, the president of the Șara Integrated Agricultural Cooperative Mea, present at the ZF Agropower show, a project supported by Banca Transilvania and Penny.
With 10.2 million sheep, Romania ranks second in the EU in terms of livestock, right after Spain, which had 13.6 million sheep in 2023. However, also last year, Romania produced 5,000 tons of sheep and goat meat, which placed it in 10th place in the EU in this category, according to Eurostat data. Statistical data show that this is the lowest value in at least the last ten years, with peaks of over 12,000 tons in 2018 and 2019. Thus, most of the sheep left alive for export, mainly to Arab countries.
“We don’t have a tradition of consuming meat from this animal in a permanent form, and that’s why we can’t put it in shop windows. The protein is of a very good quality, but I think it will be very difficult to make the transition in the next period, because very large investments are also required for processing. Now there are two slaughterhouses that are working, one is in Făgăraş and the other in Călăraşi”, explained Burculescu.
During the Easter holidays, 3-4 million lambs are slaughtered, but then, the other part of the livestock is hardly transformed into meat, which ends up on Romanians’ tables and not only that. However, there is demand from the foreign market and now is the time to invest in processing, Burculescu believes.
“You need very large investments to develop a production line, but I think it’s the future. The price of a kilogram of ram, live, at the moment is 4,500 euros/ton, on the other hand, for processed meat, the carcass is 10 euros/kg, that is, 10,000 euros/ton, double”, emphasized the president of the Cooperative Ţara Mea .
He added that the associations of sheep producers are well-defined and hermetic and they will find a way to unite to make the necessary investments. “We are talking about investments that must exceed 50 million euros for a single production facility. If you have a slaughterhouse that only cuts animals and you limit yourself to 50 animals per day or 200 or 400 or 1,000 animals – which seems to us a lot when you compare with the market in Western Europe – you are almost insignificant”, he confirmed he.
Thus, for a livestock of about 12 million sheep and goats in the country, large production units are needed. “If you made a carcass and sold the carcass, it’s a price and you fertilize an animal, and if you cut it into pieces and sold lamb chops or mutton meat, it’s another price.”
Burculescu said that now Romania mainly sells live animals to Arab countries, but more markets for sheep and mutton have been opened lately, and producers should take advantage of this. “We would not have expected to sell in a country like Morocco, but Albania, Georgia, Jordan, Israel, Kuwait, Libya, Lebanon, Tunisia or Algeria were also opened. A path has been opened for our industry and from now on it is up to each producer association to make it work.”
In fact, Burculescu also said that it is the first time that a producer, Dumitru Andreşoi, the largest sheep breeder in Romania, with approximately 20,000 sheep, managed to buy a ship to export directly. “It’s the first time this has happened since the revolution and I think this sector has a very big future.”
How could Romania increase its meat consumption with the investments?
“If you put mutton on the shelf and someone buys it, you can’t cook it at home and you can’t eat it, because it’s tough. Then, what did we do, we put lamb chops on the market for the first time, which is completely different. It is very good on the grill or on mutton skewers. Of course, the ram is twice the price, it is perhaps sold much less than the sheep, but by introducing the ram the consumption increases slightly. The consumer would educate himself then and the processor would have reason to do so”, explained Florin Burculescu.
