In Moldova, poultry and cattle farming was brought to its knees and the few business entities operating in this sector risk being unable to sell their products as the meat and milk selling prices are low, Valentina Barbei, the deputy head of Ștefan Vodă district, stated in a discussion of Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Viorel Gherciu with heads of district agriculture divisions and producers from the animal breeding sector, IPN reports.
According to Valentina Barbei, for the sector to be viable, the milk and meat processing enterprises should be state-run.
Vasile Raru, head of the Cahul district agriculture division, said there are no cattle collection points in their district now. The animals are sold at low prices and the skin is not processed. Some of the mini-farms gave up producing milk given the absence of milk collection points where the prices would be attractive.
Ion Moraru, of the Hâncești district agriculture division, said the small producers from the field are the most vulnerable ones. These cannot raise loans as they are not sure they will be able to repay them. Because they do not have money, they do not invest in business and do not modernize production and are not competitive as a result. The lamb’s wool processing units almost disappeared.
Measures should be taken to remove the monopoly on the veterinary medicines market. As some of the necessary medicines are not authorized in the country, the producers have to look for such medicines that are smuggled from Romania.
Summing up, Viorel Gherciu said a project to create agrifood centers was drafted in a move to help animal breeders sell their products on the domestic and foreign markets. A solution is for the small producers to form associations so as to be able to process milk and meat together.
The official noted the Agriculture and Rural Development Fund this year was by over 435 million lei larger. The subsidies provided by the state in the agrifood sector in 2021 will come to 1.535 billion lei. Furthermore, the private sector invested 4 billion lei. “We will continue to look for financial resources for the subsidization fund to be increased so that the representatives of the private sector are motivated to invest, including in the animal breeding sector,” said Viorel Gherciu.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture’s data, the domestic sector provides only 25% of the necessary quantities of beef.
