As of this December, the seed growers of Moldova could export seeds of hybrids homologated in the EU member states, director general of the National Agency for Food Safety Gheorghe Gaberi was quoted by IPN as saying in a news conference.

Gheorghe Gaberi said the given decision was taken as a result of a comprehensive audit conducted at the start of summer. As a result of this, the national seed certification system was recognized as equivalent to the control and certification system of the European Union.

“I want to highlight that in the course of this year Moldova’s Parliament amended the legal framework so that the national producers could use sorts and hybrids from the European Union’s catalogue. This will create  preconditions for the interested companies from the EU states to base seed production here and our over 1,100 producers could benefit from the offered opportunities,” stated Gheorghe Gaberi.

He also said that Moldova now can export fruit planting material to France, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and other EU member states. “We should now obtain the right to export vines as this is very important for us given that we would have exports estimated at over 1 million grafted vines annually and could substantially increase this volume,” said the Agency’s director general.

He also said that new audit missions will be invited in the near future to examine other groups of products, such as poultry and eggs of category B. “We also aim to soon obtain the right to export milk products so as to extend the market for selling products from the national agrifood sector,” stated Gheorghe Gaberi.

The agricultural sector annually needs 120,000-125,000 tonnes of grain, beet, vegetable and other kinds of seeds.