
Moldova hopes to receive financial assistance from the EU to modernize the infrastructure in order to speed up the transportation of agricultural products.
Deputy Prime Minister, Agriculture and Food Minister Vladimir Bolea announced this during a meeting with representatives of Forța Fermierilor (Farmers' Power) Association. He said that, in order to support farmers, the government has increased the volume of subsidies and approved more measures than in previous years. In particular, the Cabinet will provide additional subsidies to compensate the excise tax on diesel fuel, as well as a one-off aid for farmers affected by the consequences of the 2022 crisis. In addition, diesel fuel from the external humanitarian aid will be distributed among them. The Agriculture Ministry head said that the financial assistance of 200 million lei will be transferred to the accounts of about 3,000 small and medium Moldovan farmers. These measures will be taken by the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture (AIPA), once the government's decisions are published in Monitorul Oficial (the Official Journal of Moldova). Vladimir Bolea also said that in order to deconcentrate transport with grain at customs posts, a number of control zones will be created outside the settlements, equipped with parking lots and the necessary infrastructure, modeled on the customs post in Giurgiulesti. "Streamlining cross-border traffic is a priority for us. I made this known at a recent multilateral meeting in Galati, Romania, of officials from Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, the US and the EU, who discussed improving alternative routes for grain transportation from Ukraine. "We asked for financial assistance through the Solidarity Lanes to modernize the infrastructure in order to speed up the transportation of agricultural products," the Agriculture Ministry head said. He noted that he recently visited the Giurgiulesti customs post and found that the waiting time to cross the border through the Giurgiulesti checkpoint varies from 24 to 30 hours. "The pace of control of grain trucks is unfortunately lower on the Romanian side, but we are making efforts to unload cross-border transportation," Vladimir Bolea said. // 18.08.2023 - InfoMarket.