Moldovan farmers to receive compensations for processed apples, plums, wine grapes

Chisinau, 8 December /MOLDPRES/- The Agency for Interventions and Payments for Agriculture (AIPA) today said that more than 6,000 Moldovan farmers had applied for compensations for apples, plums and wine grapes, allocated within the “Compensations to back sales” component of the “Moldova Agriculture Competitiveness Project” (MAC-P).

According to a press release by AIPA, compensations stand at 91 million lei, of which 36 million lei had already been transferred to farmers.

Eligible of the financial support are fruit and grapes producers, as well as legal and natural persons owning or exploiting plum or apple orchards or vineyards with a surface not exceeding 15 hectares. The financial support will be distributed as follows: 1.93 lei per one kg of apples, 1.35 lei per one kg of plums, 1.54 lei per one kg of grapes (European varieties) and 0.77 lei per one kg of Isabella grapes. The average yield for apples should reach up to 40 tons per hectare, for plums- 18 tons per hectare and wine grapes- 12 tons per hectare.

The head of the department in charge of implementing the World Bank’s “Moldova Agriculture Competitiveness Project”, Liviu Gumovschi said “all compensations will be paid by the end of 2016, or by January 2016, at the latest. The number of applications is much smaller than we expected, as many farmers sold their production without signing invoices. However, in order to receive compensations, farmers must hand in documents issued by manufacturers confirming the purchase of the apples, plums or wine grapes,” Gumovschi said.

The “Compensations to back sales” component of the “Moldova Agriculture Competitiveness Project” (MAC-P) was launched in July 2015 and is meant to back fruit and wine grapes producers hurt by the Russian embargo imposed in 2014, by providing them financial support in form of compensations for the processed fruits and grapes. To implement the component, the World Bank offered Moldova an installment amounting to 12 million dollars based on a financing agreement signed on 21 May 2015.

(Reporter P. Beregoi, Editor M. Jantovan)