Situation in agriculture is difficult, but we will not experience crisis, minister

The situation in agriculture is difficult as many crops were affected by frost, but we will not experience a serious crisis if there are no other calamities, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov said in a meeting of the Ministry’s Board on February 17, Info-Prim Neo reports. The minister said that the crops were also affected by the drought that preceded the cold weather. About one third of the sowed areas were damaged. Even in such difficult conditions, the state has sufficient amounts of wheat at least until September. “There is enough wheat in the state reserve. At the end of this month, we will buy another 10,000 tonnes of wheat to increase the state reserve,” he stated. According to Vasile Bumacov, the bread should not get dearer. Even if the bread prices are raised, the rises will be insignificant. But everything depends on the evolution of the prices of fuel, fertilizers and equipment. The frosty weather this winter affected not only the sowed areas, but also the multiannual plants such as the vine as well as the apricot, peach and other fruit trees. A commission was set up to assess the damage caused by the weather conditions. The wheat harvest in 2011 was 833,000 tonnes, 40% of which were food wheat.