Food importers and distributors in Romania
For owners & export directors at food producers
Pick your product category below. Each guide names the Romania buyers who source it.
IN SHORT
Food importers and distributors in Romania buy food from producers abroad. They sell it on to shops, restaurants and factories. The main buyers are Kaufland, Lidl and Carrefour. The channels that matter are Retail, Discount & proximity expansion, HoReCa and Ready-meal & processing. HoReCa means hotels, restaurants and catering. Romania is among the fastest-growing grocery markets in the EU, with modern retail still expanding into smaller cities (industry estimates).
How to find food importers and distributors in Romania
Food importers and distributors in Romania buy food from producers abroad. They sell it on to shops, restaurants and factories. The channels that matter in Romania are Retail, Discount & proximity expansion, HoReCa and Ready-meal & processing. HoReCa means hotels, restaurants and catering. We publish 3 category guides for Romania, one per product group.
Romania is among the fastest-growing grocery markets in the EU. Modern trade is still expanding. Lidl, Kaufland, Carrefour, Auchan and the small-format chains Profi and Mega Image keep opening stores, more and more in smaller cities. Discounters set the price. Every new store is a new listing to win. Unlike a full Western shelf, buyers here often add products instead of defending what they have. Shoppers watch the price, but the volumes are real. A growing ready-meal and processing industry adds factory buyers for semi-finished goods. Romania is inside the EU single market, so you deliver without customs.
THE ROMANIA MARKET
Who buys food in Romania
These are the groups a buyer conversation usually starts from. We book meetings with the people inside them.
Romania — who the buyers are
| Kaufland | Hypermarkets — among the market's biggest grocers by turnover (Schwarz Group) |
|---|---|
| Lidl | Hard discount — among the largest by store count, fast-expanding |
| Carrefour | Hypermarkets and supermarkets — absorbed the former Billa Romania |
| Profi / Mega Image | Proximity and convenience — dense small-format networks reaching smaller cities |
| Auchan / Penny / Metro / Selgros | Hypermarket, discount and cash-and-carry wholesale — the way into restaurants and hotels |
Channels that matter
Retail · Discount & proximity expansion · HoReCa · Ready-meal & processing
- ▪Romania is among the fastest-growing grocery markets in the EU, with modern retail still expanding into smaller cities (industry estimates).
- ▪Discount and small-format chains drive much of the expansion and set the price: Lidl, Profi, Mega Image and Penny (industry estimates).
- ▪Romania's ready-meal and food-processing sector is growing. It adds factory buyers for frozen and semi-finished goods (industry estimates).
GUIDES
Product categories we cover in Romania
Each guide names the buyers, what they check before a listing, and how the trade is organised.
Bakery & Pastry importers & distributors
Romania caps the shop margin on plain white bread, and only on that. Specialty bread, pastry and sweet bakery sit outside the cap, so that is where a buyer can still earn. Bake-off is the normal bread format in modern retail here.
Confectionery & Snacks importers & distributors
Romania has no sugar tax, but value-added tax does a similar job. Sweet food with a lot of added sugar sits at the standard rate, not the reduced one. Above that shelf sit two German discounters and, since 2025, one buying desk behind two supermarket chains.
Frozen Food importers & distributors
Romania is one of the fastest-growing grocery markets in the EU. Lidl, Kaufland, Carrefour, Profi, Mega Image and Auchan keep opening shops in smaller cities. Every new shop needs new frozen products on its shelf.
Your product category is not listed for Romania?
That does not mean no. A guide goes live only when we know that trade well. We open new markets and categories all the time. Ask us, and you will get a straight answer about whether we can help.
Ready to meet Romania's food buyers?
Book a 30-minute Discovery Call. We look at your products and your buyers. If we can’t help, we’ll say so.
Book a Discovery CallFixed fee — no commission · First meetings 2–3 weeks after we start writing · Min. 10 meetings guaranteedReviewed by the ProspectX export team, led by founder Casper Morawski (LinkedIn) · Last reviewed August 2026.