There are no economic reasons for the increase in the price of bread, and nothing threatens the food safety of Moldova - Ion Perju.
The Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and the Environment presented the position of the department regarding the increase in the prices of bread by some producers. According to him, prices are not overpriced for economic reasons, as the producers explain. “At present, the price for premium flour on the domestic market averages about 5.8 lei per kg: a kilogram of first grade flour costs 5.6 lei, second grade - about 5.3 lei. This is local flour. For comparison, at the beginning of March the price of a kilogram of flour was 6-6.5 lei. The increase in prices for bakery products has occurred now, in mid-May, while the maximum prices for flour were recorded at the beginning of March. At the same time, the price of wheat continues to decline. At the local level, various varieties and quality of wheat are presented, the cost varies from 3.8 to 4.3 lei per kg,” Perjou said. He drew attention to the fact that Franzeluta did not raise the prices for bread, even when the situation was more difficult, and in the future plans to increase the volume of bread production at current prices. At the same time, there is no shortage of raw materials in the domestic market. According to Perju, after the announcement of the distribution of 20.7 thousand tons of wheat in order to update state reserves, applications were received from 23 economic agents. Five flour-grinding enterprises were allocated more than 5.4 thousand tons from the state reserve, and 9 enterprises for the production of bakery products received over 7 thousand tons. “There is both wheat and flour in Moldova. Annual production of wheat, excluding the dry last year, is about 1.1 million tons. It annually supplies for export from 620 thousand to 945 thousand tons of wheat, the domestic market consumes 400-450 thousand tons of wheat. In 2021, 125 thousand tons of wheat was exported from stocks of 569 thousand tons,” Perju said. He said that the Ministry of Agriculture considers the increase in prices carried out by some manufacturers of bakery products to be unjustified. Perju also called as speculative the statements of some politicians who are already participating in the election campaign and are trying to divert public attention from the issues unresolved by the President. // 17.05.2021 – InfoMarket
