Romanian Agric Min Says Increase In Food Prices Ungrounded And Artificial

"Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara shall never uphold a price hike policy for agri-food products, because it is unjustified at the moment", the Agriculture Ministry said in a press release Monday, adding many dysfunctions on the market disfavor, in particular, raw material producers and consumers, while food processors and those selling food products siphon off profits in the system.

Ministry officials said subsidies are not the ones triggering price-related dysfunctions, but speculations involving agri-food products, which, they stressed, don't come from Romanian producers in the vegetal or animal sector.

"The agriculture minister will never allow any production takeover blackmail on Romanian raw material producers, either in the vegetal or animal sector. Therefore, the ministry believes an increase in prices of agri-food products is ungrounded and artificial at the moment", the press release also reads.

Romanian consumer prices rose 0.56% on the month in September, largely driven by higher food and service prices, while the annual inflation accelerated to a fresh two-year high at 7.77%, the country's statistics institute INS said Monday.

Food prices increased 0.8% on the month in September, while services and non-food prices were up 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively, INS data showed.

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