In the Republic of Moldova, there is no danger of a large-scale food crisis, the head of the Parliament’s commsion on agriuclture and food industry Vladimir Bolea assured. According to the MP, the authorities’ decision to ban the export of wheat ensures the country’s internal consumption for a period of 300 days. For its part, the parliamentary opposition said the decision to ban wheat exports decreases dramatically the revenues of farmers who do not have financial resources to cultivate the land, IPN reports.
The blocking of Ukrainian ports and Ukraine’s impossibility to export grain cam generate a global food crisis. However, the Moldovan authorities assure that Moldova will not lack food products.
“In March, we stopped the export of wheat and wheat flour. The wheat reserves come to about 250,000 tonnes. This would enable us to cover 300 days of internal consumption. Furthermore, even if the harvest in some of the regions will be weaker, the wheat crop will be good. Therefore, we do not see any risk of lacking bread or basic products. Owing to the budget deficit, we now offer 30% of the excise duty on diesel fuel to farmers, but I’m convinced that from 2023 the farmers will get a full refund,” PAS MP Vladimir Bolea stated in a Special Edition on the public TV channel Moldova 1.
Representatives of the opposition said the authorities’ decision to ban the expert of wheat seriously affects the farmers. The state should purchase wheat from farmers so as to prevent their indebtedness.
“Given the prices of diesel fuel, spare parts, oils, it’s clear that the prices of grain will be much higher than last year. The farmers need to invest now 2-3 times more in the agricultural process. The ban on the export of wheat is good for the food security, but is not so good for farmers. Therefore, the state should buy wheat at the price of 6 lei, which is the current market price, so as to enable the farmers to successfully end the agricultural year,” said MP of the PCRM-PSRM bloc Radu Mudreac.
At the same time, farmers said the Republic of Moldova will not lack food, but food prices will reach alarming levels. They called on the authorities to ensure strict control over the prices of products of social importance.
“They speak about food security only in terms of existence of products. But the problem now does not reside in products. The biggest problem is the prices, who monitors them. We need measures to combat monopolies and dominant positions and to support small and medium-sized farmers so that these keep production in the Republic of Moldova and, what is more important, process it. We are in the situation when a lot of raw material is exported with low value added instead of being processed here,” said the president of the Association ”Force of Farmers” Alexandru Slusari.
As the authorities decided, the excise duty on diesel fuel for farmers is subsidized to the value of 30% of the quota set for 2022 or in the amount of 894 lei per tonne or of maximum 100,000 lei a year per beneficiary.
