A group of farmers protested in front of the Government Building to show their dissatisfaction with the delay in being offered the compensations for the damage caused by last April’s frosts promised by the Premier, IPN reports. According to Stanislav Ivanita, who owns an orchard in Donduseni, the farmers have been long misled by the authorities, while the regulations concerning the provision of compensations haven’t been yet approved.

Stanislav Ivanita said a part of the farmers who intended to take part in the protest were intimidated and prevented from coming. Among farmers’ demands are to provide compensations as soon as possible, to freeze the loans at least until December 1 this year and to organize a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the problems faced by small farmers. If the small entrepreneurs go bankrupt, everyone will go bankrupt – the banks and the whole country.

Contacted by IPN, Iurie Fala, executive director of the Association of Fruit Producers and Exporters “Moldova Fruct”, said the contact with the Government is kept. They were consulted when the regulations were drafted, but the compensations are much overdue.

“The fruit growers are very dissatisfied as they don’t know whether to make investments or not at the start of the year,” he stated, adding that tens of thousands of families in northern Moldova earn their living by growing fruit and many producers are close to bankruptcy.

The bill concerning the provision of financial support to agricultural producers to alleviate the consequences of the natural calamities of 2016 was placed for public debates on the Ministry of Agriculture’s website last November. The informative note to the bill says the frosts seriously diminished the fruit harvest in the districts of Briceni, Donduseni, Drochia, Glodeni, Ocnita, Rascani and, partially, Soroca. An area of 6,424.82 ha of orchards was affected and about 62,000 tonnes of fruit were lost.