Moldova not to be stricken by world food crisis: Agriculture Minister

Moldova is not going to be stricken by the world food crisis, since the country's food safety is ensured with local produce, Agriculture Minister Anatolie Gorodenco told a round table on Tuesday. “Moldova will attain a record high harvest compared with the previous years,” he is quoted by Info-Prim Neo as saying. According to the Agriculture Minister, the sugar beet harvest – 860,000 tonnes -- will enable the production of over 98,000 tonnes of sugar, of which 15-18 thousand may be exported. The yield of fruit is especially high in the north, as some 80,000 tonnes have been gathered already. The sunflower will be 350,000 tonnes, while the total output of vegetables and pumpkin cultures will exceed 936,000 tonnes, up 24% than the average in the last 5 years, the minister said. The output in current prices is assessed at 18 billion lei, including 12 billion – the vegetable output and 6 billion lei – the animal output. The large amount of produce will hit financially the small farmers, which will incur losses since their output will be sold at lower costs than planned, and a solution for them to diminish the risks would be joining farming collectives, Gorodneco thinks. Developing agriculture through modernization is a way to avoid the impact of such crises, as the animal breeding sector needs to be relaunched by starting producing pork and bird meat. “The coming two years I think we'll be able to supply ourselves with meat entirely,” Gorodenco said. Now Moldova imports 20,000 tonnes of meat and meat products, and it consumes 130,000 tonnes annually.