The agricultural production in 2018 will be by 5% higher compared with 2017. The prices in the first half of this year, especially of grains and fruit, will be unstable, but will be higher than those logged in the second half of 2017. The estimates were made by the programs director of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Viorel Chivriga, IPN reports.

In the program “15 minutes of economic realism” produced by “Viitorul” in partnership with Radio Free Europe, Viorel Chivriga said that extended risks will be witnessed in 2018 and 2019 as regards the implementation of the Association Agreement’s provisions on agriculture, regional development and environment, generated by the reorganization of the competent Ministry that will have extended duties following the merger of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and subdivisions of the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction.

The expert also said that the next two years, which are electoral ones, could be marked by populist decisions, hesitations in doing painful reforms and political interference in the economic sector.

According to Viorel Chivriga, 2017 in agriculture and rural development will be marked by positive results achieved by farmers in the vegetal sector, minor regression in the animal breeding sector, rise in exports of agricultural and agrifood products to the EU and CIS, institutional reform at institutions in charge of agriculture and rural development and the implementation of the Association Agreement’s provisions concerning agriculture and rural development.

In 2017, the vegetal sector saw a rise in agricultural production. The global harvest of all the crops grew. Moreover, the outputs were higher for the second consecutive year even if the natural disasters of April 2017 affected extended crop fields in the central and southern regions of the country, stated the expert.