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The Romanian state prohibits small producers from selling their goods outside the area of residence, according to a false narrative promoted by sovereigntists.
NEWS: “Small producers are no longer allowed to sell their products, except their home county and neighboring counties? What do you mean? Is this how you help small producers? You mean those who produce cheese and other dairy products up in the mountains can no longer bring them to Constanța? Ciolacu, aren't you ashamed for all the mess you put Romanians through? Ordered around by big chain stores? Aren't you ashamed to make fun of these people? It is unacceptable to ban small producers like that! Dear Romanians, this is the mockery we’re made to endure by Ciolacu, Grindeanu and their clique, whom we keep in office off the sweat of our brows. Working day by day, we support these thugs in the Government! How could they possibly ban small producers from selling their products in Romania? It's an outrage. This is what it has come down to, large foreign retailers dictating our laws. God save us!”
NARRATIVE: The market for small Romanian food producers was restricted only to the county of residence, which will inevitably lead to their bankruptcy.
Restricting activity to a certain area is an unacceptable ingression on the free market
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: Restricting the market for a given trader, regardless of the products he sells, is an abusive, illegal and unthinkable act in any democratic state today. The narrative about small food producers being allowed in the future to sell their goods within the county of residence alone is nothing but a lie, which uses as an (obviously false!) argument a fragment from a decree issued by the National Veterinary Sanitary and Food Safety Authority,published in the Official Journal on January 19, 2024, which amends a previous decree dating back to 2008, regarding the sanitary and veterinary registration rules for the production and sale of food products of animal origin.
There is absolutely no mention in Decree no. 6/2024 published by the National Veterinary, Sanitary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) regarding a possible restriction of the marketing area for the products in question. Actually, the document makes numerous references to their transport, storage and marketing at great distances from the place of production. For instance, Article 2(f)(ii) clearly states that the term “direct selling” does not include delivery activities that can be carried out “with no limitations in terms of volume and area of distribution”. Also, under Article 4(3), the document states that registered producers can deliver primary animal products to processing facilities regardless of “the volume of primary products delivered or the distance from the production facility”. Article 12(5) stipulates the obligation of sanitary and veterinary authorities to notify all the departments of other counties, in the event that a producer has been prohibited from selling products of animal origin in that county. This obviously means that the producer has the possibility of selling his goods there as well.
The paragraph that refers to the county of origin and the “bordering counties” is under Article 17(e), where the term “localized supply” is redefined as “the supply of animal products obtained in the retail unit to other retail units located on the territory of the county and in any county bordering the county where the retail unit operates”. In addition to this term, the legislative amendment redefines other terms as well, such as “retail sale”, “marginal supply”, “limited supply”, or “small volumes”, in order to facilitate communication of various subsequent provisions, to avoid repetition of definitions or whenever any legislative act or administrative document refers to these terms.
Moreover, Article 42 states that “goods legally marketed in another European Union member state or in Turkey or originating and legally marketed in EEA states are considered subject to these rules”, i.e. not only that the marketing area of animal products is not restricted to the producer's county of residence, but the document also regulates the export activity, i.e. sales outside the country’s borders.
The promoters of the narrative: a conspiracist, a deputy under criminal review and journalists close to Diana Șoșoacă
BACKGROUND: The narrative under analysis is part of the meta-narrative that claims that “Romania is a Western colony”, which has completely lost its sovereignty and independence. The thesis is heavily promoted by Russian and pro-Russian propaganda and is a direct continuation of Cold War-era theses regarding the intrusive and manipulative West.
The individual who launched the narrative about limitations imposed on small producers describes himself an “independent journalist” and claims to promote “a drop of truth in an ocean of lies!”. His Facebook page was created just over a year ago, on July 30, 2023. In October last year, he started posting short videos on TikTok, which he later transferred on his own YouTube channel. The recordings posted by the “independent” journalist are nothing but gross lies, false narratives and disinformation from the sovereigntist, pro-Russian and deeply anti-Western spectrum. Part of the lies spread by this individual are taken over by a publication from Iași, which is, (unofficially for the time being) the “private newspaper” of the pro-Russian politician Diana Șoșoacă, currently a member of the European Parliament.
The false narrative was brought back into the public's attention a few days ago, by the extremist deputy Ciprian Ciubuc, a close associate of Diana Șoșoacă, who in 2021 circulated more fake news regarding the Covid pandemic. One such narrative claimed, for instance, that the head of a German clinic committed suicide, leaving a farewell letter where he said he no longer wanted to be part of the “genocide” of anti-Covid vaccination. In January 2022, a month before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, deputy Ciubuc called on the authorities to introduce mandatory military service for “absolutely all men aged 18-40”, the digging of “4-meter-deep and 8-meter-wide trenches along the border of the eastern flank” and rigging all bridges and roads entering the country from the Eastern border with “explosives”. In an expression of overzealous patriotic fervor, Ciprian Ciubuc posted a map of interwar Romania, claiming in an outpouring of passion that “This is my whole country, this is what I learned in school!”. However, Ciprian Ciubuc was born in the USSR, on the current territory of the Republic of Moldova, and he completed his academic education, including his university studies, in Chișinău. Therefore, he couldn’t have studied the history and geography of Romania. Currently, Ciubuc is being prosecuted for aggravated criminal damage, after he let his sheep graze on a land that did not belong to him, causing a massive prejudice.
PURPOSE: To erode trust in state authorities, to promote sovereigntist and anti-Western rhetoric, to generate anti-establishment social movements.
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