Romanian ministers are calling for measures to stop foreign companies from buying up agricultural land in the fertile Balkan country.

“There is a clear interest among foreign companies in Romanian land but the law should impose some barriers,” Foreign Minister Theodor Baconschi said recently.

“Land is cheap, so there is a risk we’ll end up with a lot of foreign landlords,” the minister added.

Under current law, only foreign companies, rathern than individuals, can buy land in Romania – but that restriction has to be lifted by 2014, while the European Commission has called for it to be lifted even earlier.

In recent years, due of greater clarity of title, many Western companies started to buy land in Romania. Farmland can be bought for around 2,000 euro per hectare, up to 40 times cheaper than parts of Western Europe.

“I am not worried about the amount of land already acquired by foreign companies, it is still low. But Romania should take necessary measures to protect its interests, including its food security”, Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara said recently.

Ironically, agricultural land is not seen as an asset by most Romanians, who tend to consider agriculture a thing of the past.

As many as 1.3 million hectares of arable land lie unused in Romania, according to statistics. The total agricultural surface in Romania is 14.7 million hectares, of which 9.3 million hectares are arable.

Almost half of Romania’s 21 million people still live in rural areas. But agriculture has long lacked investment, while other problems include fragmentation of holdings, property-related lawsuits and obsolete technology.

Most of the country’s 2.8 million private farmers own less than five hectares. The average size of a privately owned farm is 2.2 hectares.