Romania helps Gagauzia to purchase wheat

The Government of Romania Wednesday decided to allocate 100,000 euros from the Foreign Ministry’s budget in immediate assistance to Moldova’s autonomous territorial unit Gagauzia for setting up a food wheat reserve fund. According to a communiqué from the Romanian Government, the decision was taken following an appeal from Gagauzia's Governor Mihail Formuzal, who asked Romania to support the region to overcome the drought effects by creating a food wheat reserve fund. The communiqué says that the drought in Moldova affected the crops and this year’s wheat harvest will make up only 45% of last year’s harvest. About 80% of the wheat and corn crops in southern Moldova were destroyed by the drought. On August 28, the Government of Romania decided to provide immediate humanitarian aid to Moldova to help it overcome the aftermath of the drought. The aid worth 6.6 mln Romanian lei (2 mln euros) consists of food products – 3,000 tonnes of food wheat, 400 tonnes of sugar, 10 tonnes of power milk, 24 tonnes of canned meat, 16 tonnes of canned liver and 40,000 litres of refined sunflower oil.