site.btaSunflower Oil, Gasoline, Queues… and the Ghost of Ceausescu

In just a few days, Romania saw several variants of mass consumer psychosis. Queues for gasoline, queues for sunflower oil (before they hike the prices) – a scenario that did not spare neighbouring countries either. But what happened in the land of the now dimly recalled communist dictator Ceausescu and why did some media bring them up now?

It is hard to make people forget the times of shortages and endless queues for this or that staple. As it turned out, younger generations have not been spared either.

Fuel

The rumour that petrol and diesel prices would rocket the next day spread in the evening of March 9, mainly on social networks. The price of 11 leu (4.35 leva)/l for petrol and diesel at a particular gas station in the northwestern city of Beius, Bihor county, went viral and people rushed to stock up at lower prices elsewhere, armed with jerry cans and whatever containers they could grab.

That same night Romania saw queues at gas stations the likes of “Ceausescu times”, the Ziare e-zine informed. The rush for fuel did not pass without incidents either.

The next day, Energy Minister Virgil Popescu assured that Romania had “absolutely no problem” with oil and fuel stocks. He called the situation from the previous night a “manipulation” and “part of a hybrid war on the territory of Romania”.

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca warned that all fuel companies would be checked and those guilty of unwarranted price hikes - sanctioned.

The very same day, government spokesman Dan Carbunaru announced the National Authority for Consumer Protection had checked over 70 gas stations across the country and had imposed fines worth a total of 370,000 leu (146,210 leva). The notorious one in Beius was fined 35,000 leu (nearly 14,000 leva), Carbunaru specified.

Sunflower Oil 

A day later, a new crisis hit, this time sunflower oil. And people again stormed stores in an attempt to stock up before prices soared (expected to reach 15 leu or nearly 6 leva a litre) or the commodity disappeared. Just as in Ceausescu times.

Again, a host of officials had to assure that Romania had sufficient oil and sunflower seed in stock and was not relying on imports. The hazard of profiteering was singled out too.

Commenting on the hysteria that had been caused by rumours that Romania did not have enough sunflower oil and people had rushed to the shops, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Adrian Chesnoiu assured Romanians there was enough in stock until the new harvest and that they should not rush to the stores.

Citing the prеvious case with the fuel, Chesnoiu said Romanians should not succumb to hysteria and should buy just as much sunflower oil as they needed.

Carbunaru also called for responsibility and reasonable planning of daily consumption. There is no problem with supplies, he assured.

Agriculture Ministry State Secretary Sorin Moise doubled down on the issue, emphasising that Romania harvested sunflower sufficient to cover consumption tenfold. Economy Minister Florin Spataru in turn announced that probes are being launched in relation to the rising prices.

Romania ranks first in the European Union in terms of sunflower production and has also been the largest exporter of seeds at EU level in the last five years, the Ziarul financial daily notes. If the entire quantity was processed in the country, Romania would have been an important factor on the European vegetable oil market, it adds. 

As in Ceausescu times ...

Nicolae Ceausescu, who headed Romania since 1967, was executed on December 25, 1989, after the Romanian Revolution overthrew the communist regime in the country. It is difficult to say how much nostalgic memories of those times remain, considering the generation gap, but a 2021 poll of the INSCOP Research think-tank shows that 63 per cent of Romanians think the situation now is worse than the one 30 years ago. On seven years, the nostalgic-minded have increased by 20 per cent – from 43.5 per cent in 2014, Radio Free Europe commented.

But still, are the people with the jerry cans and shopping carts full of sunflower oil simply naive victims of an online conducted psychosis, and isn’t the manipulated price hike a warning for a rather more even but yet inevitable increase?

Inflation in Romania reached 8.4 per cent in January 2022, Y/Y, the National Statistical Institute said. The Central Bank forecast that inflation would pass the 11 per cent threshold in April-June, when the energy price lid measures were expected to expire.

However, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Monday that electricity and gas prices would be frozen for a year as of April 1. The measures for compensation of domestic consumer invoices remain in force.

It is hard to say if this will this bring the peace needed in a world locked between a pandemic and a war, but the lines for fuel and sunflower oil seem a déjà vu to many in Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe.