Romania unblocks 155 million lei for farmers’ diesel: 57.6 million litres approved for payment for the first quarter

Farmers who fuelled their tractors in the first part of this year now know the exact sum the state recognises as payable: 155.26 million lei, for 57.57 million litres of diesel. Through Order No. 209/2026, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved the quantities for the period between 1 January 2026 and 31 March 2026, determined as payable and not settled by the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture. The mechanism is a partial refund of the excise duty paid on diesel used in farming, support that matters more than ever in a year when the state also intervened in the fuel market, through capping retail margins and changing the excise duty on diesel.

The scheme operates under Government Decision No. 1.174/2014, which established the state aid for reducing excise duty on diesel used in agriculture. The farmer buys the fuel at full price, excise included, and later receives part of it back, on the basis of the quantities actually used and accepted for payment. Orders of this kind, issued quarterly, are the administrative step that confirms the figures and allows settlement.

The key to this order lies in the wording of its title: quantities “determined as payable and not settled”. These are not new claims but files that had already passed APIA’s verification, yet for which the money had not reached the farmers. The order closes that backlog for the first quarter.

The act was signed in Bucharest on 31 July 2026 by the interim minister of agriculture and rural development, Tánczos Barna, on the same day it was published, on the basis of approval report No. 199.012 of 29 July 2026 from the General Directorate for Agricultural Policies.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is financial and immediate: approving the quantities is the condition for APIA to be able to transfer the money. Without this order the sums stay locked in the agency’s records, even though the claims have been verified and accepted.

The second effect is an X-ray of mechanised farming in Romania. Crop farming absorbs 49,325,572.575 litres, around 85.7% of the total, reflecting an agriculture dominated by large arable holdings with intensive ploughing, sowing and harvesting. Livestock takes 8,214,146.708 litres, about 14.3%, and land improvement only 27,000 litres, under 0.05% of the total. That last figure is worth remembering: irrigation and drainage systems, precisely the infrastructure that matters in drought years, consume an almost symbolic amount of subsidised diesel.

The third effect concerns the unit value of the support. The ratio between money and litres gives roughly 2.70 lei of aid per litre of diesel, a uniform value across the three sectors, a sign that the same level of excise refund applies regardless of the type of work. For a holding consuming 10,000 litres per quarter, the support translates into about 27,000 lei.

The fourth effect concerns timing and matters for farm cash flow. The period covered ended on 31 March, and approval comes on 31 July, four months later. For a farmer, that is the stretch in which they financed the excise difference themselves, exactly during the spring workload, when liquidity pressure peaks.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The order does not amend the aid scheme and changes no eligibility rule. It does not touch the level of the refund, adds or removes no categories of beneficiary, and changes none of the required documents. It is an implementing act that puts figures on a mechanism in place since 2014.

What actually changes from one quarter to the next are exactly the two numbers in Article 2: the total quantity and the total value of the aid. They depend on how much fuel was consumed, how many claims passed verification, and the level of refundable excise in that period.

The factual situation that changes upon publication is the state of the backlog. Before 31 July 2026 the first-quarter quantities were determined but unsettled, so they existed as an administratively recognised obligation with no coverage in payments. After publication they have the legal basis needed for settlement.

One element of context that does not appear in the order but matters for reading it: the annex contains no breakdown by county, crop type or holding size. Transparency stops at the level of the three sectors, which makes it impossible, on the basis of this document alone, to see how the support is distributed between small and large farms.

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