Moldovan government is against closing the market for imported agricultural products

The closure of the Moldovan market as a “protectionist” measure allegedly to protect farmers from excessive imports of foreign agricultural products is “stupidity” that will only lead to “killing local farmers. This opinion was expressed by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry of Moldova Vladimir Bola.

According to the minister, most of the products of Moldovan farmers are exported, as the domestic market is “very small and unable to absorb everything that is grown and produced in the country.” “We must understand that at the level of our entire country, everything that is produced is exported. In percentage terms, it is up to 70%. We are not an importing country, we are exclusively an exporting country. And closing the market, as some comrades suggest, is the murder of our agricultural producers. Only short-sighted people can propose to ban imports to Moldova,” Bola said.

To confirm his words, he cited the figures according to which the entire volume of rapeseed produced in Moldova in 2023 (81 thsd tonnes) was exported. “Out of 800 thsd tonnes of sunflower seeds, up to 335 thsd tonnes were sold on the domestic market, the rest was exported. Moreover, not everything that was sold domestically was consumed here. The oil that was processed was also exported,” the Minister added.

Speaking about grain crops, Bolia said that last year, 1 million tons of grain and almost 2 million tons of corn were exported to Romania alone, while domestic consumption “does not even approach half of this figure.”

“Agricultural production in Moldova is focused exclusively on exports, as we have a very small domestic market. Closing the Moldovan market for some reason of “some comrades” means killing farmers. We consume 320 thousand tons of grain domestically, and last year we produced 1.5 million tons. Everything is export-oriented,” the minister summarized.

Tags: grain, sunseed, rapeseed, Moldova, restrictions