Romania is located in the South-East of the Europe, covers an area of 238,397 km2 (92,046 square miles), and has a length of the coastal zone of 256 km, which represents 5.3% of the total Black Sea coastline.
The first document regarding fish farming on the Romanian territory dates back to the 12th century and it refers to the existence of numerous ponds and the fishes that populated them. There are also other references to fish farming in official documents from the XV-XIX centuries on the current territory of Romania.
There were 3 important stages in the development of the modern aquaculture in Romania. The first one started with the application of the first fishing law in 1896, elaborated by the great scientist Grigore Antipa, and was characterized by the modern approach of fishing and fish farming, foundation of research units and education in the field of fishing and fish farming, protection and rational exploitation of the fisheries. The second stage, was between 1944-1990, when specialized higher education was founded, and was developed the industrialization of fishing. The third stage began in 1990, and was characterized by a drastic decline of the fish production, and implicitly the reduction of the industrial capacities.
Starting with 2007, non-reimbursable funds have been allocated for the development of aquaculture under the Operational Programme for Fisheries 2007-2013 and the Operational Programme for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs 2014-2020, which supported small and medium-sized enterprises to develop and modernize (there were purchased high-performance equipment, fish production has diversified, etc.) aquaculture farms, and other activities of the aquaculture farms, like: recreational fishing tourism, educational tourism, food service, etc.
In Romania, aquaculture is carried out on the basis of Emergency Ordinance no. 23/2008 with further modifications and completions and consists of breeding and cultivation of aquatic animals using techniques aimed at increasing the production of organisms beyond the natural capacity of the environment, in a framework in which the respective organisms remain the property of a natural or legal person for the entire period of breeding/cultivation and harvesting.
According to the normative act, aquaculture can be practiced in fish farms, in artificial aquatic ecosystems represented by: ponds, artificial breeding stations, floating cages, reservoirs for aquaculture and other aquaculture facilities. Aquaculture can also be practiced in natural aquatic ecosystems nominated by order of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, at the proposal of the National Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, such as: Territorial Danube, Danube Delta and Floodplain; Razelm-Sinoe lagoon complex and coastal lakes; mountain/hill/plain streams, rivers and lakes of mountains, hills, plains and their flood zones, as well as dead arms of rivers; natural ponds and lakes without hydro technical installations for water supply, retention and drainage; accumulation lakes, with their flood-prone areas; the network of master channels in hydro-ameliorative, navigation and hydro-energy systems and their branches; inland sea waters, territorial sea, the contiguous area, the exclusive economic zone of Romania.
For the smooth running of the activities, the fish farms/establishments have assets, such as: dams, monks, pumping stations, water supply installations, water drainage systems, water supply channels, water drainage channels, hatching and breeding halls, administrative centers, primary processing units, stores for sale within the aquaculture farm, feed warehouses, material and fishing gear storage warehouses, as well as other constructions related to an aquaculture farm that are necessary in order to ensure its functionality. Most of the fish farms/establishments belonging to the public domain are granted to the private administrators who register the unit in the Register of Aquaculture Units (RUA) and receive an aquaculture license, issued by the National Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture. At the same time, for the functioning of the farms/establishments, the private administrators are required to obtain an environmental authorization, issued by the National Agency for Environmental Protection and a management authorization from “Romanian Waters”. At the end of 2019, in the South-East Region of Romania there were 87 units with an aquaculture license, active in the field of aquaculture.
Most of the aquaculture units in the South-East region are located in the rural area.
Out of the 87 aquaculture units, 71 carry out their activity in fish farms/establishments with public ownership, 11 in fish farms/establishments with private owner and 5 in fish farms/establishments with mixed public-private ownership (the public owner having the land of the facility, and the private owner the assets).
The main public owners of the fish farms/establishments in the South-East region, distributed by county.
At the end of 2019, the 87 aquaculture units owned 120 licenses, out of which 62% licenses for hatchery, 27% licenses for nursery and 11% licenses for both hatchery and nursery,
distributed by county as follows:
- Tulcea – 49 licenses, out of which 30 licenses for hatchery, 14 licenses for nursery and 5 licenses for both hatchery and nursery;
- Constanța – 28 licenses, out of which 17 licenses for hatchery, 6 licenses for nursery and 5 licenses forboth hatchery and nursery;
- Brăila – 18 licenses, out of which 13 licenses for hatchery, 3 licenses for nursery and 2 licenses for both hatchery and nursery;
- Galați – 15 licenses, out of which 10 licenses for hatchery and 5 licenses for nursery;
- Vrancea – 6 licenses, out of which 4 licenses for hatchery and 2 licenses for nursery;
- Buzău – 4 licenses, out of which 1 license for hatchery, 2 licenses for nursery and 1 license for both hatchery and nursery.
Aquaculture in the South-East Region of Romania is carried out in freshwater and is characterized from a technological point of view by the following directions: extensive and semi-intensive growth of cyprinids in polyculture and intensive growth of salmonids.
Breeding cyprinids in polyculture is carried out at most farms/establishments in earthen ponds, in extensive or semi-intensive regime. There are also farms that breed cyprinids in floating ponds, concrete ponds or thermostated basins with recirculated water systems (SAR).
The areas of many fish farms/establishments have the status of NATURA 2000 sites, benefiting for this reason from various financial facilities for the loss of production due to ichthyophagous birds or for the protection of the fauna of the area.
Many of the extensive fish farms/establishments are multifunctional farms where other social and environmental services are provided: ecological tourism, recreational fishing, educational activities related to the knowledge and protection of aquatic biodiversity, improving water management.
The following fish species are prevalent within the fish farms/establishments:
- Asian Cyprinids – silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella)
- Cyprinidae -Indigenous Cyprinides – common carp (Cyprinus carpio), Prussian carp (Carassius gibelio), tench (Tinca tinca), common bream (Abramis brama), white bream (Blicca bjoerkna), common barbel (Barbus barbus), asp(Aspius aspius), common roach (Rutilus rutilus), common rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus)
- Siluridae – Wels catfish (Silurus glanis)
- Percidae – zander/pike perch (Sander lucioperca), European perch (Perca fluviatilis)
- Esocidae – northern pike (Esox lucius)
- Acipenseridae – sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), beluga/great sturgeon (Huso huso), Danube sturgeon/Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedti), starry/stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus),bester, best beluga, American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula)
- Salmonidae – trout (Salmo sp.), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis).
In addition to these fish species, crustaceans – crayfish (Astacus sp.) and batrachians – frogs (Rana sp.) are collected in some farms.
In terms of production, the biggest share belongs to Tulcea and followed by Constanta and Brăila . In 2018, out of the total production sold in the South-East Region of Romania (1 554 tons), the highest value was registered in Tulcea (624 tons, 40.15% of the total), Constanța (385 tons, 24.77% of the total) and Brăila (326 tons, 20.98% of the total).
Cyprinids (Asian and native), are the dominant species in the production with the share of 93% while the predatory species, trout and sturgeons have very low percentages.
The average number of employees per aquaculture unit in the South-East Region of Romania was 7 in 2016, considering that within the 80 active aquaculture units there were 565 employees and 6 in 2018, the 72 active aquaculture units registering a total number of 422 employees.
The main income of the aquaculture farms comes from fish sales (wholesale and retail), generally registering values in the range of 40-70% of the total income and in some cases even over 70%. The rest of the revenues, registering lower percentages, come from egg and fry sales, brood fish sales or production incentive revenues. Some of the aquaculture farms in the region also carry out other activities, which add value, such as processing, farm restaurant, recreational fishing or agriculture.
Regarding the unit fish production costs, excluding fixed investment expenses, the highest percentage is registered by the feeding costs, the feed supply used being generally either prepared in the farm, or combined (both industrial and prepared in the farm), labour costs and taxes. Rent costs (for land, building, water and water area, etc.) also have a significant share of the total costs, reaching values over 5%. Other expenses, such as egg and fry purchase, service procurement costs (diagnosis, consulting, analysis fees, etc.) or research and development expenses generally account for less than 5% of the total unit costs of fish production.
In the 70-80s, Romania produced approximately 300,000 tons of fish for domestic consumption and had 50,000 professional fishermen.
Last year, Romanians consumed only 20,000 tons of fish caught in the country, ten times less than 50 years ago. Another 100,000 tons arrived in Romania from export, especially from Italy, Spain and Greece.
The difference can be explained by the depletion of fish resources from inland waters and the lack of flora to make important catches from the Black Sea. This while aquaculture farms are still not producing enough fish for trade.
A Romanian consumes 7.99 kilograms of fish annually, and the European average is 23 kilograms.
Country Report CCIA GALATI within the framework of the 4BIZ project
