The lawmakers are considering possibilities of protecting the home market from massive imports of products of animal origin from Ukraine. In a meeting on February 3, members of the Parliament’s commission on agriculture and food industry examined the situation on the domestic market of products of animal origin, IPN reports.
It was noted that a series of products of animal origin, mainly dairy and meat products, could be excluded from the free trade with the CIS states, especially Ukraine. Border control will be stepped up so as to prevent smuggling. Measures will also be taken to reduce the volume of animal products that a person can bring freely into Moldova. The measures will start to be applied after the responsible authorities of Moldova have discussions with the Ukrainian authorities to explain their necessity.
Representatives of Moldovan dairy producers said that in 2015 Ukraine started to export perishable products such as milk, sour milk and cream to Moldova. The Ukrainian producers offered much lower prices than on the local market so as to conquer the Moldovan market. This put the Moldovan producers on the alert.
The MPs expressed their bewilderment at the fact that Ukraine is able to export perishable products whose use-by date is of at most five days as their clearance and distribution to shops required time. They said they will ask the responsible bodies to check how such a situation is possible and to take measures for the demand for perishable products to be satisfied with local products, as until recently.
At the end of last year, local producers of dairy and meat products notified the authorities and asked for concrete measures to protect the home market from the invasion of products of animal origin from Ukraine after the Ukrainian producers’ access to the Russian market was banned.
