Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov considers there is no use discussing the lifting of bans with Russia now. In the program “Forth power” on N4 TV channel, he said that no other discussions in this respect are possible because political influence started to be exerted, IPN reports.

“We went to Moscow when discussions were still possible. Decision makers from Russia’s agriculture and food industry, including well-known scientists, made everything possible for these bans not to be imposed. Now they are frightened and probably intimidated. If I insist on having discussions with them, I will put them in a very unfavorable situation,” he explained.

Vasile Bumacov underlined that the ban imposed by Russia on imports from Moldova is not justified and criticized the leaders of the Party of Socialists for asking the Russian authorities to place bans. “It is very hurtful because the reasons invoked are unjustified. They accuse us of not having labs for examining the quality of meat. I want to say that our labs, which were outfitted with the support of the European Union, are much more modern than those we saw in Moscow. Let’s take the Moldovan wines for example. In Europe they are good and in the U.S. they also do not have complaints, but for the Russians they are of a poor quality. Political influence started to be exerted and we can do nothing. It’s not excluded that Russia will impose bans on other products too. But I would say nothing more as some astute candidates for MP could ask Moscow to immediately impose new bans on us,” he said.

However, the minister considers the bans have a positive side too and expressed his optimism that the situation will soon improve. “In several years we will look back and will realize that these bans helped us to mobilize and to work in a different way. I’m sure we will have growth in agriculture. The EU is ready to help the Moldovan agricultural sector,” he stated.

Asked about the compensation of farmers for the losses sustained as a result of the bans, Vasile Bumacov said the quantity of apples delivered for processing was larger than they calculated initially. “The Government is looking for money and all the apple growers that sold the apples to canneries will be compensated,” he assured.