Moldova's National Food Safety Agency says reduction of areas cultivated with potatoes triggers increase in price for product

Chisinau, 14 May /MOLDPRES/ - The prices are dictated by market and the cost of potatoes, considerably increased on the last days, deal with the diminution of the areas sowed with this crop, reads a statement by the National Food Safety Agency (ANSA).    

According to ANSA, in the last three years, the areas cultivated with potatoes have reduced by about 2,000 hectares. Or this fact led to the cutting of the production of potatoes from 214,000 to 175,000 tons. And this in the conditions when the domestic consumption of potatoes is about 300,000 tons in Moldova and the capacity of supply with the native production is estimated at 50-60 per cent of the needs.  

At present, 15 economic agents import potatoes to Moldova from Belarus, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Poland, Germany, etc, with the biggest volume of potatoes imported from Belarus.

“During 26 March – 13 May, 121 batches of potatoes imported from Belarus were monitored. Nineteen out of these batches were non-conforming and were returned to the origin country. The production from the non-conforming batches was infested with quarantine object, called potato brown rot, confirmed by a laboratory accredited in Romania,” ANSA said, after more signals by consumers, who said that some of the potatoes sold were of bad quality.  

The Chisinau-based Agency notified the State Phyto-sanitary Service of Belarus about non-conformities discovered and demanded to be informed about measures undertaken, in order not to allow the export of infested potatoes to Moldova. At the same time, ANSA submitted to the Belarusian side the list of producers, in whose batches infested potatoes were detected, so that they are subjected to rigorous controls.    

A reason invoked by specialists, in the context of the substantial increase in prices for potatoes, consists also in the unfriendly climate conditions. “Last spring was droughty, which certainly influenced the harvest of potatoes. This year, for the time being, the weather is generous in terms of rains, especially in the northern region of Moldova, where potatoes are traditionally cultivated; therefore, we may be more optimistic as to the harvest from this year, although there were some problems with the seeding material,” more farmers from Moldova have told MOLDPRES.