Agriculture has always been essential to the development of human society, providing the food necessary for human survival. For the Romanian economy, agriculture is a very important sector in terms of the number of enterprises involved and the agricultural area used, but also because of the workforce employed in the sector. However, Romanian agriculture is a vulnerable sector, which has had to face several unfavourable events in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, the conflict in Ukraine, and the lack of agricultural inputs have brought many risks for Romanian farmers in 2023, such as higher food prices and more expensive electricity for consumers. This paper aims to identify the perceptions of the managers regarding the outcomes of the recent events (the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, the conflict in Ukraine) on the future potential of agriculture in Romania and to determine their perceptions about the impact of other issues with which agricultural companies had to deal with in recent years (climate change, draught, inflation, governmental measures). Other goals of the paper were to find out the managers’ plans and prospects to potentially introduce or use new technologies and digitization within their own companies and uncover their assessments regarding the sector’s future within the European and international context. To identify these perspectives, qualitative research was carried out through in-depth interviews with respondents holding leadership positions within 16 Romanian agricultural companies. The data was analyzed in order to identify similarities and discrepancies within their statements and find corroborative ideas that could help improve the sector. The results of the paper showed how the COVID-19 pandemic and the unstable geo-political context along with other issues increased production costs, but favored digitization and technology. In the past years, because different events changed the European and Romanian economy, a lot of academic research has revolved around the areas of health, energy and technology. Therefore, the study brings elements of originality because of the theme and the approach, which provide valuable insights not only for Romania but for other countries in the region as well.

At the beginning of 2020, a virus originating from Wuhan, China, spread throughout the world, which in March of the same year was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. According to scientific studies and specialized publications, the pandemic had positive effects on the pharmaceutical industry and e-commerce, which accelerated the digitization process. The negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic consisted in the reduction of companies’ revenues, the reduction of the number of customers, the reduction of investments and the temporary suspension of production. The research of this paper is descriptive, based on statistics and data from the official reports of the National Trade Register Office. The methods used are observation, analysis, data processing and synthesis. The aim is to identify the number of new investment sectors, newly established enterprises, companies that suspended their activity and those that entered insolvency in the period 2020 and 2021, compared to 2019. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on entrepreneurship in Romania was not devastating, the entrepreneurs keeping their confidence in the stability of the market. Thus, in 2020, the company establishment rate was affected, because new entrepreneurs no longer had the courage to invest their money, but the companies already present on the market were not strongly impacted. The year 2021 is the surprise year, being the most favorable for entrepreneurship in the period 2019-2021. The most companies were established, and the rate of suspension and insolvency was the lowest. The contribution in this paper consists in the fact that it is demonstrated that the pandemic did not destroy the entrepreneurial activity in Romania. On the contrary, there was a sector, Information and communications, which experienced rapid development, thus developing the concept of “knowledge economy” in this country.

The year 2020 began with a health crisis, asserted in the same year, as the coronavirus pandemic. In this sense, world governments have taken measures to protect their national economies, measures such as limiting exports or social distancing. In 2022, the economy showed signs of recovery, when in February, war broke out between Ukraine and Russia. Thus, the two events negatively impacted world trade. In this paper, the aim is to point out the impact of the health, economic and war crisis on Romania-Brazil commercial relations, in the period 2019–2023, on Brazilian investments in Romania and on Romanian investments in Brazil. Romania is part of the European Union, being also a military, humanitarian and economic support for Ukrainians. Otherwise, Brazil is part of a totally different political structure, being a partner and ally of Russia. A descriptive research will be carried out on Romania-Brazil trade, in the period 2019–2023, based on the information on the Comexstat platform. In order to identify Brazilian investments in Romania, the research will be carried out conformable of the information provided by the National Trade Registry Office, and the research on Romanian investments in Brazil will be carried out conformable of the information provided by Banco Central do Brasil. The year 2023 represents the best economic year for trade between Romania and Brazil from the period 2019–2023, as commercial exchanges increased by 16% in 2023, compared to 2019. Regarding Brazilian investments in Romania, they are increasing, but Romanian investments in Brazil are decreasing. This work is innovative, because it sheds light on the commercial relationship between two countries with a similar culture, during a period of crisis, countries that are located in two different political and ideological blocs.