The price of a kilogram of pork fell by almost 30%. As no such meat has been exported for several months, there is a surplus of pork on the home market, executive director of the National Farmers Federation Vasile Mirzenco stated for IPN.

“Producers phone us daily and tell us that they sustain losses of thousands of lei. They produce the meat at a loss already,” stated Vasile Mirzenco. The losses of the producers with thousands of pigs amount to millions of lei.

According to him, the price of a kilogram of pork was 80-85 lei, but now it is less than 60 lei. “The producers ask us to intervene and to remedy the situation. But we do not have a support policy to be applied in such a situation,” said the Federation’s executive director.

Deputy head of the Marketing and International Relations Division of the Ministry of Agriculture Sergiu Tirigan has told IPN that last year between January and October, before Russia imposed a ban on the import of Moldovan meat, Moldova exported over 5,000 tonnes of pork to CIS states. To Belarus, Moldova exported almost 96% of these exports, while to Russia - 4%. Moldova does not export pork to other countries.

Sergiu Tirigan also said that the number of pigs increased from 410,000 at the beginning of last year to about 420,000 at the start of this year.

Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) banned the import of Moldovan meat and meat products on October 27, 2014, while Belarus – on November 1. The Russian and Belarusian authorities argued that the meat often didn’t meet the safety standards and there were identified case when the veterinary certificates weren’t authentic.