Retailers Lidl, Kaufland top food importers’ ranking in Romania

Retail chains Lidl and Kaufland, part of German group Schwarz, remained the largest food importers in Romania in 2018, according to local Economica.net. Romania imported EUR 6.2 billion worth of agri-food products in January-October last year. Notably Rewe Romania, the operator of Penny Market supermarket chain plunged from the third place in 2017 to the eighth place after it sold the Billa chain to Carrefour. Nonetheless, Rewe has expanded aggressively, by opening 26 units in 2017 and another 15 in 2018 to reach a total of 236 units. The success of the food retail chains in terms of sales is correlated with the share of private labels they carry, Economica.net concluded. One new entry in the top 15 food importers in Romania is Delaco Distribution (on the 14th place), which imports dairy products. Auchan, which operates a chain of hypermarkets, is no longer among the 15 largest food importers in Romania, despite taking over the retail branch (Real) of the German group Metro. Grain traders such as Cargill Agriculture, Nidera and Bunge or tobacco companies like British American Tobacco or JTI International are among the 15 largest importers of agri-food products as well. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Kaufland)