Agricultural year 2011 was successful, minister

The year 2011 was a successful one in agriculture, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov said in a summing up meeting of the Ministry’s Board. According to officials of the Ministry, Moldova has enough sugar, wheat and sunflower for the next year, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vasile Bumacov said the success was mainly due to the rise in exports. “The increase in exports shows that our goods are more competitive. Our potential to enter new markets is expanding. The production volume is larger and this is also a positive sign,” said the minister. According to him, despite the drought and the lower than projected sugar beet crop, the demand of sugar on the home market will be met. As many as 660,000 tonnes of sugar beet have been harvested this year. About 90,000 tonnes of sugar will be obtained from this quantity. Moldova needs 80,000 tonnes. Speaking about the wheat harvest, the minister said that this year it totaled 833,000 tonnes, 40% of which is food wheat. The sunflower crop is also higher. Most of the sunflower is processed in the country and thus the incomes rise. The fruit yield in 2011 was 460,000 tonnes, up 25% from 2010. 231,000 tonnes were exported, 110,000 tonnes processed, while the rest were refrigerated. The grape harvest was almost twice larger – 235,000 tonnes of technical sorts of grape and 80,000 tonnes of table grapes, 26,000 tonnes of which were exported. Potatoes accounted for almost half of the vegetable crop – 430,000 tonnes or by 90% more than last year. There were harvested 270,000 tonnes of field vegetables. As to the priorities for the next years, Vasile Bumacov mentioned the ensuring of food security and implementation of conservative agriculture. He said that next year the Ministry will launch the reform of education, science and extension in agriculture and will improve the subsidization system. A sum of 400 million lei was earmarked for agriculture in the 2012 draft state budget.