Romania scores slightly better in global report on food security

Romania ranks 38th in the 2018 edition of the Global Food Security Index, with a score of 68.9 points, up one point compared to 2017. Corteva Agriscience, DowDuPont’s Agriculture Division, and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published the results of the Global Food Security Index 2018 – GFSI. The index considers the core issues of affordability, availability, and quality across a set of 113 countries, providing a common framework for understanding the causes of global food insecurity. Romania ranks 38th in the 2018 report, better than neighboring Bulgaria (47th), Russia (42nd), China (46th), and Turkey (48th), but lower than Hungary, Poland or the Czech Republic. Of the three criteria analyzed, Romania obtained the best score for food quality and safety (32nd place in the world), followed by food availability (position 35) and affordability (43rd place). Romania obtained the maximum score (100 points) for a large number of categories analyzed by this index. Thus, there has been noticed the existence of a favorable environment for food safety, but also a large variety of sources of financing for farmers. This adds up to a low risk that the urbanization rate will affect agricultural production. The report mentions the dedication of the Romanian authorities to raise food standards, the existence of a balanced and nutrient-rich diet, the presence of a nutrition improvement strategy and the collection of data on nutritional deficiencies, according to a press release. Food security in Romania is supported by a sufficient capacity to store food, according to the index. Also, Romanians have very good access to drinking water sources, as well as a well-developed network of food shops. Romania recorded low scores for the high percentage of family income spent to purchase food, the infrastructure in agriculture and the agricultural production volatility, as Romania reported large differences in the agricultural outputs recorded annually in the past two decades. Singapore claimed the top spot in the 2018 GFSI ranking for the first time since its inception (in 2012), while Ireland slipped to number two. Meanwhile after maintaining the top spot between 2012 and 2016, and falling to second in 2017, the United States has now dropped to third. The UK also ranks third. The full report is available here. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com