THE INTEGRATION OF ROMANIA INTO THE EUROPEAN UNION MARKET OF SUNFLOWER SEEDS.

Sunflower is the most important oil crop practiced in Romania, in terms of the constituent indicators of the primary supply, but also by the fact that sunflower seeds have a surplus trade balance at national level. Culture has a high productive potential, it comes to exploit the existing opportunities on the market, in terms of existing opportunities nationally and internationally. Over time, Romania has been a dynamizing factor of scientific research in the field, highlighting the concerns of researchers from National Institute of Agricultural Research and Development (INCDA) Fundulea for the creation of a quality genetic material. It should be noted that the favorability of sunflower cultivation is quite pronounced at EU level, both due to the pedoclimatic conditions and due to the existing traditions in certain areas (less tradition in the extreme Southern part of the EU), for the practice of other crops providing raw materials for obtaining oil or consumption habits of the population (olive - in the Mediterranean area). The topic of this paper was approachd based on the existing global and continental context for the period 2007-2019. The results showed that in this period 2007-2019, Romania cultivated (on average) 3.81 and 5.39 of the world and European area respectively (966.84 thousand ha compared to 25,325.47 and 16,298.01 thousand ha respectively), achieved 4.62 and 6.79% of the total production (1,919.96 thousand tons compared to 41,548.57 and 28,296.81 thousand tons). The importance on the international market is highlighted by the fact that Romania held 22.52 and 26.97% of the world and continental volume of exports (1,070.99 thousand tons compared to 4,755.42 and 3,971.52 thousand tons), and for imports, the shares were 3.96 and 6.05% (183.47 thousand tons compared to 4,629.84 and 3,220.90 thousand tons respectively). Romania is not an important player in the market of this product at European and global level, especially since sunflower seeds can reduce the deficit of the external trade balance, given the appropriate use of the specific national potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]