Author: Ilie StoianThe road to profit in 2014 seems to start as slow as in the past years, despite the effervescence at the end of 2013, when Chinese made huge promises to Romanians. This happened because things are pretty clear as far as it concerns them: Smithfield entered into the “yellow” yard, as the processing will turn totally “yellow” with the very possible purchase of Campofrio Group by a Chinese investor. In other words, they will produce the flesh by themselves, as well as the final products. Thus, there will be no Romanian farmers or factories exporting to China.On the other hand there will be resulting good things from this: the gap in the pig market after the departure of Smithfield pigs to China has to be covered by the Romanian farms, thus overall primary production will increase. We will begin to export more lamb, as well as live sheep to Turkey, and the transit through this country will be allowed, so that this area has growth prospects. Romanian poultry sector shows signs that it will still be on a positive slope and beef cattle farms seem to get consistency. As far as it concerns the processors, things seem to shape their favourable frame, not because evasion and the black market will be reduced too fast, but especially due to the fact that the Romanian companies will be increasingly present on the foreign markets in the European Union. Some regret remains because Russia still does not open its doors for Romanian products, but this is because the threads of Romanian foreign policy are too tangled, threads that spread further to the West, not to the East, to Moscow. And, if in the second half of the year, the rate of VAT on meat will be reduced as well, from 24% to 9%, we are confident that by the end of 2014, the accounts of Romanian meat farmers and processors become more “fat”. So, here you have a situation in which, despite what the nutritionists say, "fat" is beneficial. God’s will!