In 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry begins to invest in animal breeding so as to reanimate this sector, said Minister Vladimir Bolea. According to him, the cattle farms this year will be modernized with a loan raised from the World Bank. It is crucial for Moldova to produce at least a part of the quantity of milk needed for consumption so as to decrease imports, IPN reports.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry said there are all the preconditions to start to reanimate the animal breeding sector this year. The necessary legislation was adopted and a loan was taken out from the World Bank to invest in the modernization of cattle farms.
“The minister of agriculture of Germany asked me how many cows we have. When I told him that from 5,100 dairy cows in 2021 we now have 13,000, he said that this is not animal breeding. Our goal is to increase the number of high producing dairy cows to 20,000 until 2025 so that we have 8,000 liters of milk a year from a cow. To solve this problem, the law on animal breeding was harmonized in 2022, when I served as an MP. By the start of June, we will receive the money from the World Bank. It is a project implemented by the Government with the World Bank to attract US$55 million to agriculture, with US$25 million of this sum being intended for animal breeding,” Vladimir Bolea stated in the program “Common Objective” on TVR Moldova channel.
According to the minister, the animal breeding sector is very costly, but its development will enable Moldova to reduce the massive dairy imports and to create new jobs.
“Today, to set up a place for a dairy cow at the farm, one needs €10,000. The investments are very large. But we hope that with this US$25,000, we will manage to strengthen the existing farms and will have at least 20,000 cows that will provide 160,000 liters of milk annually. Our internal consumption is 568,000 liters. We aim to diminish the massive imports. We must be resilient and guarantee jobs. A farm always means jobs. The farm is not a seasonal, sporadic type of agriculture. It is continuous and always provides value added,” said Vladimir Bolea.
Earlier, the head of the National Association of Milk Producers “Lapte” Carolina said that approximately 90% of the milk that is the raw material used to make dairy products in the Republic of Moldova is bought from private individuals, while the authorized farms provide a reduced quantity of milk. According to her, before the war Ukraine supplied Moldova with the largest quantity of dairy products, but now the products from Ukraine are replaced with those from Romania.
