The agricultural producers anticipate that the harvest this year will be much better than last year. They expect to collect by 45 quintals of wheat, 24 quintals of rape and 36 quintals of barley per hectare. Farmers discussed their projections with Prime Minister Iurie Leanca, who paid a working visit to southern Moldova to see how the crops are being harvested, IPN reports.

Iurie Leanca went to the agricultural company “Ghevlandri” in Vulcanesti, which sowed 960 hectares with wheat, 170 hectares with barley and 200 hectares with rape. He also visited a local nectarine orchard that is 26 hectares in area, a plum orchard and a vineyard.

“It is very important to have good harvests and a good system for the farmers and producers to have access to the market. The harvest this year is good and we must make effort to make sure that the farmers recoup their investments and promote their products on new markets,” said the Premier.

Iurie Leanca underlined that the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement signed with the EU last Friday will create favorable conditions for the Moldovan products to cope with competition. “We must export not only raw material, but also products with value added. The investments at local level represent more workplaces and contribute to economic growth,” he said.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov said that the grain crop this year will be very good. “The agricultural year is favorable and we expect that the contribution of the agricultural sector will exceed 25 billion lei,” he stated.

The minister added that the grain harvest this year is expected to be by 2.9 – 3.3% higher than last year. It is projected that about 1 million tonnes will be reaped from the 310,000 hectares sowed with wheat.