In order to cope with the requirements of the Europeans, the agricultural producers will have to join together, considers Deputy Minister of Agriculture Gheorghe Gaberi. According to him, there are many small producers that will have to make considerable effort to enter the EU market, IPN reports.

“In the agrarian sector, we will have to start a very active association process. The small producers will be unable to comply with the EU requirements, neither as regards the quality, nor as regards the quantity and the pace of supplies,” Gheorghe Gaberi said in a public discussion staged by the EU Delegation to Moldova on the occasion of the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU. He added that in this respect, Parliament adopted a law on groups of producers. There will be allocated European funds for the purpose.

In the same event, Deputy Minister of Economy Octavian Calmac, speaking about the advantages of the Association Agreement with the EU, said the quality of the products and services will improve owing to the European funds invested in the program to create labs and for protecting the home market from products of a poor quality.

“We must admit that the state over the last few years hadn’t invested in market surveillance and in ensuring the quality of products placed on the market. We do not have capacities to check the quality of the imported products and thus accept them as they are. We do not subject them to laboratory tests,” stated Octavian Calmac.

According to him, the program to create labs is also aimed at certifying the exported products. “It’s not only about the export of this equipment to the EU. We must to the same in the relations with Russia so as to avoid interminable discussions about the quality of our products,” said the official, adding that the authorities want to create mechanisms by which to ensure the quality of the exported products.

Moldova signed the Association Agreement with the EU on June 27.