Farmers put forward a number of urgent demands to the government and threaten to hold new protests.
The Republican Congress of Moldova’s Agrarians, organized by the National Federation of Farmers of Moldova and Forta Fermierilor (Farmers’ Power) Association on October 21, stated that 2023 is the most difficult in the history of Moldovan agriculture, and since last summer agriculture has suffered from multiple crises at once: drought, war in Ukraine, high prices for inputs and collapse of prices for agricultural products. "Severe drought has significantly reduced the harvest of corn, sugar beets, soybeans and sunflowers in 2022. Agricultural production costs have increased by 200-400% in different categories, and interest on loans has increased by about 3 times. At the same time, excessive imports of agricultural products from Ukraine had a significant impact on the fall of prices in the domestic market for wheat, barley, corn, rapeseed and sunflower. Since the fall of 2022, agricultural producers have been selling grain and oilseed crops below cost. At the same time, lenders have started to put hard pressure on farmers. According to our preliminary calculations, only for the first group of crops, farmers' losses exceed 2 billion lei," the resolution of the Republican Congress of Agrarians reads. The statement emphasizes that farmers from all European countries from the Black Sea basin faced similar problems, but there they were provided with support, while in Moldova the government practically left farmers alone in the face of enormous difficulties that arose from circumstances beyond their control. The agrarians blamed the government and, in particular, the Ministry of Agriculture for the situation and demanded the resignation of the current Minister Vladimir Bolea, who "did not intervene in time to stop the degradation of the agricultural sector and reacted with great delay to the problems in the sector". Also, the Republican Congress of Agrarians sent to the government, parliament and the presidency a list of urgent measures to be taken to save micro, small and medium-sized farmers from bankruptcy. In particular, they called on the authorities to impose a moratorium on the accrual of penalties, on the enforcement of obligations and on the implementation of insolvency procedures for small farmers, who for the most part (at least 70% of cultivated agricultural land) cultivate grain and oilseed crops. They also demand that imports of wheat, corn and sunflower be banned at least until the end of March 2024, and that the transit of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine be allowed only by rail. The agrarians demand to increase the size of the National Fund for Agricultural Development to at least 3 billion lei and to raise the limit of budgetary deductions for the formation of this fund to 4%. In addition, they demand to pay direct subsidies per hectare following the EU example, to develop an Action Plan for the implementation of the Moldovan Food Security Strategy for 2023-2030, to create an Agricultural Loan Guarantee Fund following the EU example, to establish an effective dialog between the authorities and representatives of civil society in the agricultural sector. In case the government fails to take real measures to restore the sector within 7 days, the agrarians intend to resort to mass protests, including with the use of agricultural machinery. // 23.10.2023 – InfoMarket
