Romanian investor gets record fine and agricultural subsidy lockdown

A Romanian company owned by local investor Adrian Porumboiu received a EUR 12 million fine and a lockdown for agricultural state subsidies, for failing to report dead animals. Comcereal, a company within Porumboiu’s Racova-Com -Agro-Pan group, failed to register the death of 206 cattle in the national registry. It thus repeatedly and intentionally breached the rules, according to local media. The Agency for Payments and Subsidies in Agriculture APIA Vaslui imposed the penalty. On top of it, it also decided the company should not receive any subsidies in 2015. The state grants subsidies for agricultural farming and Comcereal has over 27,000 hectares of land for which it receives such grants. The investor will appeal the fine and the APIA decision in court, as the lockdown on subsidy affects his cereal business, which is separate from his animal farm business. Porumboiu also has complaints about how the clerks from APIA checked his cattle farm in Tarzii. editor@romania-insider.com