Overproduction will bring down buying prices, Agriculture Minister

Moldova this year expects a record high harvest in terms of volume but not also in terms of quality, and overproduction will lead to lowering buying prices on the market, said Agriculture & Food Industry Minister Anatolie Gorodenco, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. At a recent meeting, Gorodenco informed that sunflower seeds have been gathered from 83 percent of the fields, corn from 53 percent, and more than 80 percent of the land destined to autumn crops has been prepared for sowing. Experts forecast the output of sugar beet to stand at 860,000 tonnes, which will transform into roughly 98,000 tonnes of sugar, of which up to 18,000 tonnes could be exported. At the same time, the fruit output was particularly high in the northern part of the country, with 80,000 tonnes being harvested and some of it already exported. The output of sunflower is expected to constitute 350,000 tonnes, while the total production of vegetables will amount to 936,000 tonnes, up 24 percent on the 5-year average. This year, the volume of agricultural production in current prices is estimated at 18b lei, of which 12b lei vegetal production and 6b lei animal production. This is a 1.9 times rise from last year and a 1.5 rise on the average of the period 2003-2006. The agricultural subsidies fund for 2009 provides for 313m lei.