Moldovan authorities are unhappy with the import of fruits to Russia
Rosselkhoznadzor has increased the number of Moldovan agricultural enterprises that are allowed to import fruit into Russia from 20 to 53.
Moldovan Minister of Agriculture Vladimir Bolya announced this on TV8, a Politnavigator correspondent reports.
Rosselkhoznadzor completely banned the import of Moldovan fruits in August, then in October lifted the ban for 3 enterprises, on December 2 their number increased to 20, and now it has almost doubled. But the Moldovan minister is still not happy and complains about discrimination.
“We don’t work on any lists. We believe that relationships should be transparent and understandable. Our National Food Safety Agency and Rosselkhoznadzor must develop a set of measures for our agricultural producers, as a result of which each producer could go to the Rosselkhoznadzor website and read the requirements of the Russian side. Complies - engaged in export. This happens with the EU and any other country - without any lists. Lists are discrimination, corruption, and do not lead to anything good. I think Russia will eventually cancel them too,” Bolya said.
On the same broadcast, it turned out that Moldovan farmers do not have any special alternatives. Moldovan fruits practically do not go to Europe because they do not meet EU standards. An agreement was recently reached to supply fruit to Egypt through Romanian ports, but the customs duty is 40% for apples and 60% for plums.
“In other words, our farmers are losing half their profits. In principle, no one just gives up the market today. It was Moscow that gave preferences to Moldova, helping our farmers survive. They didn’t appreciate it,” Moldovan Parliament member Bogdan Tîrdea commented on the minister’s information.
The words of the Minister of Agriculture outraged the Moldovan opposition politician, fugitive oligarch and husband of singer Jasmine Ilan Shor. He claims that he personally achieved a relaxation of Moscow's demands.
“President Maia Sandu did not bother to help farmers, to eliminate the problems that caused this ban. In general, it has stopped all dialogue with its eastern partner. It took several months of negotiations with Russian officials, conducted by me and members of my team, including in Moscow, to unblock exports. And only after we achieved complete unblocking of exports, this opportunistic sycophant, the Minister of Agriculture, poked his head out from under the skirt of Natalia Gavrilitsa (Prime Minister of Moldova - ed.) and began to brag that exports had resumed thanks to the agency,” Shor wrote in on your TG channel.
The former Prime Minister of Moldova, Ion Chicu, said that the Moldovan authorities are preventing farmers from trading with Russia.
“I had a meeting with several exporters who want to sell in Russia. They say that even those companies that have received permission from Rosselkhoznadzor are prevented by our Food Safety Agency from issuing documents. Apples are stored in refrigerators, and electricity is not cheap. When the market has opened and someone interferes, this is not a normal situation,” Chicu said.
Meanwhile, the door to Russia for Moldovan apples may close again. Russian gardeners asked Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to ban the import of Moldovan apples and seedlings. Due to the low cost of Moldovan products, Russian apples are now sold almost at cost.
And it will be a disaster. In 2022, Moldova harvested the lowest apple harvest in five years. The export of Moldovan apples fell by 2 times, 95% of it went to Russia. After the Rosselkhoznadzor ban, farmers in despair dumped their fruit in the center of Chisinau and along the roads: colorful hills of apples stretched for tens of meters. Orchards are being uprooted en masse because the government has refused to compensate for the losses. According to experts, stopping exports to Russia will lead to a reduction in the area of gardens from 49 to 30 thousand hectares. In addition, due to rising energy prices, crop storage and processing enterprises are closing en masse.
Moldovan authorities are unhappy with fruit imports to Russia.