The National Food Safety Agency will ask Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance to provide explanations concerning the criteria used to select the ten companies that can export apples to Russia from February 26. The Agency will also request that all the companies from Moldova should be allowed to export apples, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Ion Sula said in the talk show “Special edition” on Publika TV channel, IPN reports.
The minister stated that he received a letter from the Russian authorities, informing him that the import of Moldovan apples was allowed on a trial basis, but the trial period and the selection criteria were not specified. Ion Sula noted the list of companies is a surprise for him and he hopes the export of vegetal products will be fully resumed after this experiment.
In the same program, the executive director of the Association “Moldova Fruct” Iurie Fala said the opening of any market is a benefit to the producers, but there should be greater transparency in any action. “This is a matter that we must analyze to see what the real goals of this experiment are. We are aware that the ban imposed by Russia was political in character. I suspect that on the pretext of this experiment, hidden goals are being pursued,” he stated.
Media expert Cristian Tabara said the producers should not look at this method by which the restrictions on the export of apples were partially lifted with great hope and should be rather precautious. This situation is offensive as no explanations were provided as to why particular companies were selected. The term ‘experiment’ is also insulting. It’s not excluded that Russia is trying to divide the producers by favoring some of them and neglecting the others.
Ten Moldovan companies and the producers from all the Transnistrian districts, controlled by the pro-Russian administration, were allowed to resume exporting apples to Russia from February 26. The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia said the export was allowed for a trial period as a result of bilateral discussions with the National Food Safety Agency of Moldova.
