Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov next week will go to Moscow to have discussions with representatives of the veterinary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor. He made the announcement in an interview for Radio Free Europe. The visit will be paid in the context of the ban imposed by Russia on the import of meat products manufactured by a Moldovan company and in order to prevent the imposition of bans on the import of Moldovan fruit and vegetables, IPN reports.
Vasile Bumacov said that 80% of the apples are exported to Russia. If these exports are blocked, Moldova will face problems. The ban on the import of meat products imposed by Russia does not cause serious damage as Moldova does not export large quantities of such products to Russia, only several tonnes a year. But it is a sign that arouses suspicion.
“The Food Safety Agency is no longer managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, but it must make effort to avoid the imposition of new bans. We anticipated such problems and even changed the subsidization system so as to be able to diversify the export markets,” he stated.
Vasile Bumacov said the raw material used by the sausage producer was imported through a free economic zone, which, according to him, are ‘black holes’ that will always create problems.
Recently, Russia banned the import of pork from the EU. “We anticipated such a move and made effort to convince our producers to start to invest in processing, packing and sorting so as to have alternative markets in the EU,” said the minister.
