The authorities said that a register of horticultural producers will start to be worked out soon, by the model of the winemakers and winegrowers register of the National Office of Vine and Wine. Such a register is needed because it is now hard to trace a number of crops in the sector, IPN reports.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Eduard Grama, in a meeting of the press club of the Association of Economic Journalists, said there is now no procedure for declaring crops, while agricultural statistics are of a poor quality. As a result, the harvests from farmland are not taxed.
“There is no register of producers, not only grain producers, but also producers of vegetables, fruit, berries and other high value added goods, even processed ones,” said the minister.
Answering journalists’ questions about the work of the National Food Safety Agency, including the reported provision of 1,500 certificates for the export of ‘Moldovenized’ apples, Eduard Grama said this case is being examined and will be addressed in concert with the delegations of experts of Russia and Belarus, who will arrive in Chisinau soon. “It won’t be a pleasant discussion for us, but it is important to identify the persons involved in these irregularities,” he stated.
The minister added that great effort was made to found the National Food Safety Agency and this Agency’s role is decisive in Moldova’s external commercial relations and on the internal market. Three state institutions were merged to create the Agency that now has about 1,500 employees. The similar institution of Romania employs only 500 persons at a time when the Romanian market is much larger than the Moldovan one. As the institution was founded not long ago, the mistakes made by some of its employees can be explained by lack of experience.
