The association “Force of Farmers” asks to immediately convoke a meeting with the Prime Minister of Moldova and to urgently introduce, by the decision of the Commission for Exceptional Situations, a moratorium on the calculation of penalties, delay interest and other commissions paid by micro, small and medium-sized producers that grow mainly grains and oilseeds to creditors, until December 31, IPN reports.
In a press release, the association says that the farmers during the past few weeks have monitored the evolution of grain and oilseed prices on the domestic market and in the region and ascertained that the prices of wheat, barley and rapeseed in Moldova are the lowest in the whole Balk Sea Region. Even in Ukraine, a kilogram of wheat costs 2.9 lei on average, while in Moldova it is 2.5 lei. In general, in all the countries of Eastern Europe, except for Moldova, the price of wheat, barley and rapeseed have grown slightly.
Even if the harvest of grain crops of the first group is higher than last year, with the current prices of raw material the farmers sustain huge losses that vary between 3,000 and 6,000 lei per hectare of grain crops of the first group. The association “Force of Farmers” says that immediately after the grain crops of the first group started to be harvested, the agricultural producers began to be financially harassed by the creditors. Regrettably, the subsidies promised to farmers are very small and the allocation of these is late.
The farmers demand not to calculate, by December 31, penalties for the non-fulfillment of the obligations to the national public budget from micro, small and medium-sized grain and oilseed producers and to ban the blocking of their accounts and also the forced execution of the obligations and the starting of insolvency procedures against these farmers by December 31. The producers also ask the Competition Council to devote attention to the purchase prices of grains, which are lower than the prices in the region, and to determine if there is no cartel agreement there.
