Augustin Oancea, owner of Intercereal: Agriculture is a field in which spectacular developments from one year to another are less frequent, because the results depend on numerous external factors, from weather conditions to the evolution of agricultural markets.
♦ The experienced energy entrepreneur took over Intercereal in 2020 ♦ In 2025, 125 hectares of agricultural land were purchased. After building one of the strongest players in energy, Augustin Oancea, the founder of the Tinmar group, wants to do the same in agriculture. Through Intercereal, a cereal producer from Ialomiţa, taken over in 2020 from Ioan Niculae, the entrepreneur wants to expand in a sector in which it is already in the top five by area, with 24,000 hectares exploited. «From the moment when Intercereal entered the Tinmar Energy group, in 2020, the development of agricultural activities was treated as a long-term strategic direction. (…) The expansion strategy in the agricultural field will continue in the next period as well. Intercereal is constantly analyzing acquisition opportunities, both in terms of agricultural land and companies active in the field», Augustin Oancea, the owner of Intercereal, told ZF. In the five years since the takeover of Intercereal, investments of the order of tens of millions of euros have been made in the expansion of the agricultural areas, in the modernization of the equipment park, in the irrigation infrastructure, the increase of the storage capacity, but also in the consolidation of the team. Oancea added that in 2025 alone, more than 125 hectares of agricultural land were purchased, and currently the total area of land owned by the company is approaching 3,000 hectares. For example, last year Intercereal bought a 40-hectare plot of land in the town of Nanov, Teleorman county, and the total price of the transaction was 2 million lei, which means a price of 9,900 euros/hectare. «The expansion of agricultural activities is part of the development strategy of the Tinmar group, which aims to consolidate its position in this sector. Agriculture is a complex field, with numerous challenges and with significant variations from one year to the next, but once we have assumed this direction of development, our objective is to build a high-performing, modern and efficient activity», Augustin Oancea emphasized. Intercereal is, according to ZF data, in third place among the largest players in agriculture, according to cultivated area. The leader is Agricost, owned by the Arab group Al Dahra, which exploits 57,000 hectares in the Big Island of Brăile, leased from ADS, followed by the Maria group, owned by Lebanese investors, which works around 35,000 hectares in Romania. Then comes Intercereal, with 24,000 hectares, JD Agro Cocora, which manages over 17,500 hectares, and Emiliana West Rom, controlled by Italian investors, with 12,000 hectares and a cattle farm of 1,200 cattle. In terms of turnover, Intercereal ended the year 2024, the last one for which data is available, with revenues of 157 million lei, up 7% compared to the previous year, but also a loss of 40 million lei, with 270 employees, according to public data. In the energy area, the Tinmar group is being investigated by DIICOT, because «the companies in the group carried out a series of operations on the electricity market that generated significant profits», but Augustin Oancea rejected the accusations and said immediately after the launch of the investigation, in November 2025, that the companies in the group did not transfer quantities of energy to each other with the aim of artificially increasing the price and receiving higher settlements from the state based on capping-compensation scheme. You have expectations from the year 2026 «Fortunately, we had a favorable autumn and winter, which creates good conditions for the evolution of the crops, especially the autumn ones. However, in agriculture the results depend on many factors, and the climatic conditions of the next period will have a decisive role. Intercereal has invested and continues to invest in irrigation systems, which can make the difference in difficult years from the climatic point of view. We are also developing capacities to produce electricity for our own consumption, which contributes to reducing costs operational», said the entrepreneur. Through these investments and through the modernization of agricultural holdings, he wants to increase productivity and efficiency, so that agriculture is a profitable activity in the long term. «Agriculture is a field in which spectacular developments from one year to the next are less frequent, because the results depend on numerous external factors, from weather conditions to the evolution of agricultural markets. In this context, we rather expect an organic and sustainable growth (of the turnover in 2026 – n. ed.), supported by the investments made in recent years and those that will continue in the next period», said Augustin Oancea.
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