Group of farmers is building EUR 45 mln edible oil plant in Transylvania
The farmers, from Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, cultivate land in the counties of Cluj, Alba, Mureș and Sibiu.
iulian ernst · Journalist
· 2 min read
A group of 21 farmers cultivating 33,000 hectares in Transylvania has joined forces to build a EUR 45 million edible oil plant, in a country where much of the processing capacity has been taken over and subsequently closed by global trading groups such as Cargill and Bunge, Agrointeligența reported, citing a podcast hosted by George Buhnici.
The main obstacle was securing the EUR 25 million in bank financing needed to complement EUR 10 million in the farmers' own funds and a EUR 10 million EU grant. The farmers eventually secured financing from a foreign financial institution and a Romanian bank, bringing the project close to completion.
The 21 farmers, from Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, cultivate land in the counties of Cluj, Alba, Mureș and Sibiu.
“Too many smart projects are lost in Romania because banks are so slow and reluctant. The EU funds are helping, but not enough. [...] We contacted all Romanian banks, state-owned and private. Eventually, unless we contacted a foreign financial institution and a Romanian bank, we couldn't have brought the project to completion,” said Emil Turdean, owner of Agro Turdean Impex, a farm based in Moldovenești commune, Cluj County.
Romania exports around three-quarters of its sunflower crop as unprocessed raw material, while the remainder is processed domestically, alongside at least an equivalent volume of imported sunflower seed, by the few edible oil plants still operating in the country.
The share of the domestic rapeseed crop exported as raw material is even higher, highlighting the limited domestic processing capacity and the opportunity for farmers to capture more value by moving further down the supply chain.
Romania remains the economy with the lowest level of non-government loans to GDP in the European Union (22%, at the end of March 2026, compared to an average of 66%), including on the two main lending segments, 11% both at the level of non-financial companies and at the level of the population.
