Romania to produce 1 mln masks per day but prices will be higher than for imports

Romania’s minister of economy Virgil Popescu says that Romanian factories will soon produce over one million masks per day, which could be sold at a price of RON 2 each, plus VAT, distributor’s profit margin and retailer’s profit margin.

This leads to a shelf price of over RON 3 per piece. However, the end-user price of the Romanian masks may be higher than the price seen now in some stores, minister Popescu commented, quoted by Adevarul.

Kaufland already sells masks at the price of RON 3, while the price on the online marketplaces the price is dropping toward RON 2 plus transport fees, which still results in a final price of under RON 3 depending on the size of the purchase.

Separately, the output mentioned by minister Popescu (1 million per day) is insufficient for a population of 19 million, under the circumstances that wearing masks will be mandatory in all indoor spaces including public transportation means.

Altex electronics retailer, which has diversified to deliver a broader range of products and also runs a marketplace, promised to sell masks at the price of RON 1.5 per unit “without the profit margin” after May 15 [it remains unclear whether “without profit margin” means that Altex will not charge profit margin or the final price will be higher than RON 1.5] . Altex officials explained that the low price is explained by the cheaper transport cost, since the masks currently on the market are brought from China by airplane.

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