The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry maintains its position and says that the Republic of Moldova will not ban imports from Ukraine, but will monitor constantly the process. According to Minister Vladimir Bolea, only 10 trucks with corn have been imported from Ukraine in the recent times. A ban on imports will generate similar reactions on the part of Kyiv, which can ban imports from Moldova, IPN reports.
Representatives of the Association “Force of Farmers” repeatedly asked that the authorities should impose bans on the import of grain and oil seeds from Ukraine. The minister of agriculture said the decision agreed with most of the farmers was not to block the transit of Ukrainian grain via Moldova and to constantly monitor the flow of grain imports from Ukraine.
“The final decision was taken together with all the farmers, all the large associations. This association (e.n. Force of Farmers) is one of the smallest compared with the large ones, which sat at the negotiating table and which consist of farmers with hundreds of thousands of hectares in total. We speak about actions that generate results. We take action not for the sake of actions, but for the sake of results. I have followed the imports since May 2, when the Romanians and the European Union imposed bans. Ten trucks with corn and no trucks with wheat, sunflower and rape had been imported by May 29,” Vladimir Bolea stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
According to the minister, an import ban on Ukrainian grain will lead to import bans on Moldovan grain imposed by Kyiv.
“What shall we do with producers of wine and growers of technical grape varieties? During the first five months of this year, we exported wine products to the value of over US$11 million to Ukraine. Shall we block all these producers? What shall we do with the sale of technical grape varieties this autumn as only several months have left? To my mind, we must not take an absolutely unmotivated decision from economic viewpoint as any figure multiplied by zero is zero. If one doesn’t import anything, what’s the economic danger deriving from this import? Zero,” said the minister.
On Tuesday, Ukraine asked the European Commission not to extend the temporary bans imposed on the import of four Ukrainian agricultural products into Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Hungary, arguing the bans caused “difficulties” to the Ukrainian agricultural sector.
