“The quality of the land, good prices and the possibility of obtaining subsidies have attracted foreign investors,” points out Jurnalul Naţional, which reports that several European newspapers have described Romania as a “new Eldorado”.

Under the terms of the country’s EU accession treaty, Romania is obliged to deregulate its property market from January 1, 2014 — a move that will remove restrictions on land acquisitions by foreigners. However, in the runup to this date, enterprising investors from abroad have already purchased 10 per cent of the agricultural land in the country via locally registered companies.

According to official figures, 10m of the 11m hectares of agricultural land in Romania are currently under cultivation. But other more realistic estimates set the current level of land use at just 40 per cent.

Jurnalul Naţional is worried by the prospect of agro-industrial multinationals, which make use of monoculture, buying up land owned by small farmers. It is a concern that is shared by Minister of Agriculture, Daniel Constantin, who recently negotiated a deal to improve credit facilities for Romanian farmers with the country’s banks. From now on, the owners of small holdings will be able to use newly purchased land as collateral for loans, which was not possible in the past.