The transit of Ukrainian grain is beneficial to Moldova’s Railways, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolea said after the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Bucharest announced that a grain corridor through the Republic of Moldova to Romania will be soon opened. The minister assured that the Ukrainian grain does not remain in Moldova and does not prevent Moldovan farmers from exporting or from processing their products, IPN reports.
In Bucharest, President Zelensky said the Republic of Moldova becomes an important corridor for the transit of Ukrainian products. The Moldovan minister of agriculture said the move is welcome as the Ukrainian grain does not remain in Moldova, whereas the inclusion of the country into this economic circuit offers good prospects.
“For the huge quantities Ukraine has and wants to export, the road transport is not a solution. That’s why we had discussions with Moldova’s Railways. The grain now goes to Reni and to Constanta. So, for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, there is no reason for concern over these transits as no kilogram of grain remains on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Furthermore, it is a method by which Moldova’s Railways earns money. There is one more aspect. The war will end and we are sure of this, while the Republic of Moldova’s inclusion into economic circuits offers good prospects. One should be blind not to realize this and to oppose the transit through the Republic of Moldova,” Vladimir Bolea stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
“This year, we have imported 8,200 tonnes of sunflower seeds. The harvesting is not yet over, but the crops in the north and the center of the Republic of Moldova are very good. The sunflower areas were extended and this year we can have approximately 1 million tonnes of sunflower seeds – 1 million tonnes of national product and 8,200 imported tonnes. Dot you feel the difference? The sunflowers seeds will be exported and processed. We increased a lot the oil export. In 2021, the Republic of Moldova exported about 21,000 tonnes of oil, while in 2022 we exported over 90,000 tonnes of oil. This is extremely beneficial as we speak about a product with a high value added, a processed product that creates jobs. The negative side is that the whole processing process in time started to be controlled by one person and the Competition Council has never acted,” noted the minister.
Earlier, representatives of the Association “Force of Farmers” asked that the authorities should ban the import of sunflower, noting that the price of this product fell to 2 lei per kilogram in the neighboring country and there is a risk that the largest producer of sunflower oil will import raw material from Ukraine. They demanded to ban the import of sunflower seeds until December 31, 2023 or they would mount protests. They noted the vegetal oil plant in Balti, which is controlled by Trans Oil Group, already imported nine wagons of raw material from Ukraine and is to receive another 30 wagons. Also, the company signed a contract for the import of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sunflower seeds by the end of 2023.
